• Premier League

Jol: Spurs offered Bale to Hamburg for £5m

ESPN staff
October 12, 2014
It could have been so different for Gareth Bale, who eventually moved to Real Madrid for a world-record £86m © AP
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Tottenham offered Gareth Bale to German side Hamburg for £5 million, according to former Spurs boss Martin Jol.

Jol was in charge at White Hart Lane when a then 17-year-old Bale signed from Southampton in a £7m deal.

The Dutchman took over at Hamburg for the 2008-09 season, and has revealed that Spurs chairman Daniel Levy offered Bale for a cut-price deal after the north London club became frustrated with the Welshman's inconsistent form.

Bale's unwanted record

  • Gareth Bale was not on a winning Tottenham team for two years and four months after his move from Southampton - totalling 25 games and 1,533 minutes of action.
  • Even then, the Welsh winger only came on as an 85th minute substitute when Spurs were already 4-0 up on Burnley. They went on to win 5-0 in the match on September 29, 2009.
  • Bale's previous league victory had been in the Saints' defeat of Southend on May 6, 2007.

"Spurs saw Bale as a left back, but he probably wasn't the best left-back in the world," Jol told talkSPORT.

"He was more creative, he had electric pace, so everybody saw that he was more suited as a forward player, and Harry Redknapp saw that later on.

"I saw his potential straight away, but other people didn't see that in the early stages of his career and that led to Spurs offering Bale to me when I went to Hamburg.

"We had to pay about five or six million, which we couldn't afford at the time.

"I then asked Daniel Levy if we could take him on loan instead, but at that time it was not possible.

"So yes, Hamburg could have bought Bale for £5million because, of course, he was not playing at that moment.

"He couldn't get into the side, so Spurs offered him to other clubs."

Jol left Spurs six months after signing Bale, who eventually realised his potential at the club before making a world record £86m move to Real Madrid, where he won the Champions League and Copa del Rey in his first season.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
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