‘A shadow’: Paul Merson says Gareth Bale is nowhere near his former Spurs self

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Former Arsenal man and now Sky Sports pundit, Paul Merson, believes Tottenham loanee Gareth Bale is an ‘absolute shadow’ of his former self.

Bale is struggling to get anything going since arriving back in North London in the summer. Just a handful of appearances and goals have offered the odd glimpse of his talents. However, every Spurs fan will admit Bale hasn’t quite worked out so far.

Jose Mourinho keeps resisting the temptation to put Bale in from the start, despite Harry Kane being missing. And Merson, speaking to Sky yesterday, believes the Welshman is doing nothing to convince the Spurs boss otherwise.

“If I’m the manager and he knocks on my door, I don’t know when I’d stop laughing. Honestly, I’d think he’s knocking on my door to ask where the best place is to park because he can’t be knocking on the door to say he should be playing. He hasn’t done anything to suggest that,” Merson said.

“He was a great player. I don’t like using great loosely, but he was top draw. He was a real good player, but he looks an absolute shadow of that now.”

Spurs have lost three games on the bounce recently. Once again this week, Mourinho opted to go with Erik Lamela and Lucas Moura over Bale, suggesting a lack of trust in the Madrid man.

TBR View: Bale has turn things around or big questions will be asked

Merson touches on this in his comments but everyone questioned Zinedine Zidane for not playing Bale in Madrid. But it looks like the Frenchman might have had a point.

Bale’s simply not been at it. Regardless of the lack of minutes, he’s still hardly set the world alight when he has played.

It’s a huge few months for Bale and Spurs in general and if they are to get top four, then Bale needs to produce, and quick.