Harry Redknapp says he’s heard a rumour about Gareth Bale’s time at Tottenham Hotspur that’s completely wide of the mark.
Tottenham have reaped the benefits of sending players out on loan in recent years, particularly when it comes to current first-teamers Destiny Udogie and Pape Matar Sarr.
While temporary moves away from the club don’t always work out as intended, they can often provide youngsters with the chance to rack up valuable first-team minutes.
It certainly worked with Harry Kane at Spurs and despite underwhelming spells at Leicester and Norwich, the Spurs academy product went on to establish himself as one of the best strikers in the world.
But some youngsters benefit from remaining around the first-team set-up and that proved to be the case with Gareth Bale.
The Welshman’s start to life at Spurs was underwhelming after joining from Southampton in 2007.
Yet, Harry Redknapp was convinced that he had a huge talent on his hands after taking over from Juande Ramos in October 2008.
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Redknapp dismisses Bale exit rumours
Speaking on The Fighting Cock, Redknapp discussed Bale’s obvious talent and was quizzed on previous rumours that the Welshman could have joined Nottingham Forest on loan.
He responded: “Never in a million years. That rumour…”
“Just nonsense,” host Flav Bateman said.
“Nottingham Forest might have rung up and said might we loan him but somebody has probably said later on they could have loaned him or we tried to,” Redknapp added.
“Listen, I had him at Southampton, I was at Southampton when Gareth was there. I went to watch Tottenham play at Fulham with Joe Jordan, we were playing Fulham or Tottenham the week after, so we went there on the Saturday and Gareth Bale played left wing-back that game, I remember saying to Joe ‘what a talent he is’.
“We were saying ‘my God what a talent he is’ but we’d seen him come through the youth team at Southampton. And Daniel [Levy] was never going to let me loan him out, I had no intention of ever loaning him out.
“I loaned Harry Kane out because he was a kid who we thought had a good chance of being a player, I couldn’t sit there and say I thought he’d become the best centre-forward in the world, which he did and he is, but at that time I didn’t, I wish I could say I was that clever. We thought there was definitely a player there but he needed to get out and play.
“We loaned him out at Leicester, they never picked him. He went to Norwich, and hardly got off the bench. It was amazing. Went to Leyton Orient, that was his first loan. That would’ve done him good. But certainly, Gareth Bale was to never be loaned.”
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Bale’s early Tottenham career
Bale was dubbed as something of an unlucky charm after starting his Spurs career with a 24-game winless streak.
It ultimately led to plenty of rumours that Tottenham could look to offload the talented wing-back. But under Redknapp, Bale really flourished as a winger and the rest is history.
He eventually sealed a switch to Real Madrid in the summer of 2013 for a then world record fee of £85.3 million.
Bale undoubtedly played his best football at Spurs under Andre Villas-Boas in the season before his move to Spain. Yet, Redknapp’s role in Bale’s career cannot be understated as he put plenty of faith in a player who had struggled before his arrival.