Darren Bent says the signs don’t look great over Tottenham star Gareth Bale

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Former Tottenham Hotspur striker Darren Bent believes Gareth Bale may be in a race against time.

The Wales international has been gradually building up his fitness following his loan from Real Madrid, and has made seven appearances so far.

Most fans will have expected the 31-year-old to have taken his time to get up to speed, but Bent believes his old teammate may need to explode soon, with the likes Steven Bergwijn and Lucas Moura needing to play.

He said on talkSPORT: “Listen, it’s a gradual process but at the same time it’s a year loan. For me the question you’ve got to ask is how long is Mourinho prepared to give him before he goes this is not working.

“Do you think there’s a point in the season where he could become a distraction? They have to make a decision. It’s a year loan and if it continues like this what do Spurs do? Send him back to Madrid or keep him?

“It’s kind of a strange one, but at the minute the signs don’t look great.”

Bale is likely to start against LASK on Thursday night in the Europa League, but it will remain to be seen if he’ll start in the North London Derby on Sunday.

TBR’s View – Time for Bale to step it up

Everyone knew Bale would take a bit of time to get up to speed.

So far he hasn’t shown an awful lot and he probably does need to step things up soon.

For the moment, his form hasn’t mattered too much with Tottenham doing well as a collective.

But sooner or later Spurs will hit a bump in the road, and it’s then there may be no hiding for Bale.