Gareth Bale – very exciting but shall we all take a breath

I’m not convinced the Welshman is the world’s greatest player just yet

To quote Michael Winner (surely something we should all do more often) I think some of the football media, and fans, need to “calm down” a little. Following Tottenham’s victory over Inter Milan on Tuesday, everyone seems to have gone into overdrive about winger Gareth Bale.

“World-class!!”, “Best player in the world!”, “£50m price tag”, “Welsh wizard with the world at his feet!” are the headlines being screamed at top volume. Now clearly Bale has some serious talent. He looks like a fantastic footballer, with all the attributes to become a great player. Some of his performances this season have been very, very impressive.

Yet we’re only in November, Tottenham and Bale certainly haven’t won anything, and there is a long way to go before Bale can be declared the best midfielder in the entire world. Ever. Has everyone forgotten about Lionel Messi, Champions League and La Liga winner who is only 23? What about Andres Iniesta, who has the same medals as Messi but with the addition of a winning goal in the World Cup final and a European Championship? Cristiano Ronaldo isn’t bad either.

Of course none of this is Bale’s fault. He is simply getting on with things. Yet it’s indicative of the media in this country, particularly the sports media, to hype up players to the extreme. Just calm down for a minute, get everything in perspective, and leave Bale alone. It was only about six months ago that everyone was falling over themselves to declare Rooney the greatest footballer ever seen by man, a truly “world class” player.

I also hate that phrase. What does “world class” actually mean? How is it really defined? And have people claiming someone or something to be “world class” really seen all the other alternatives across the globe?

Of course we all know the media tendencies in this country, and the penchant for building sportsmen up beyond all proportion. This latest eulogy of Gareth Bale is simply another example, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. I never understand why people can’t simply praise a good performance without jumping ten steps ahead.

During Radio Five Live’s commentary of Tuesday’s game, Tottenham fan (sorry, impartial analyst) David Pleat screamed out: “Playing like this, we’ll get to the final!!”.

I don’t think I need to quote Winner again…