• Premier League

Desailly: Time for Bale to move on from Tottenham

ESPN staff
May 24, 2013
Gareth Bale has scored 26 goals this season © PA Photos
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Marcel Desailly feels now is the time for Gareth Bale to depart Tottenham as he believes the club cannot offer the Welshman the chance to "play at a very high level".

Bale has been linked with a move away from White Hart Lane throughout the campaign after the 23-year-old was one of the Premier League's standout players this season - rewarded with a double scoop at the PFA Player of the Year awards as well as the Football Writers' accolade.

And former Chelsea star Desailly is of the opinion the winger has to leave the North London club in order to fulfil his potential.

"He should go, he should just go. Tottenham will not give him the opportunity to play at a very high level," Desailly told BBC Sport Wales. "There's no price for experience. I think it's the time for him to go."

Tottenham missed out on Champions League football for next season as they were pipped to fourth spot by Arsenal last Sunday, and with Real Madrid linked with Bale, Desailly revealed a move abroad will help the Welshman.

"He needs to discover, as [David] Beckham has done, that an English guy or a Welsh guy has the capacity to export himself," Desailly, who also played for AC Milan, Marseille and Nantes, said.

"It's not a matter of money because he has [money] where he is at Tottenham - it's just the experience. Experience to play at a very high level at a club that has the culture of victory, a club that has trophies in the cupboard - not one or two, but plenty.

"To experience playing with other big players, to be maybe a second choice. To face difficulty, a new language for his family. It's a real change of life and an approach to life as a human being and as a soccer player."

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