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Good Morning.

“He (Maloney) clipped my leg and I couldn’t stay on my feet. It was a simple penalty and it was nice to get up and slot it away.

I’ve missed a few when I’ve taken them in the past, but I fancied it. I was confident and thankfully I did step up.”

WY77S GIFS: Gareth Bale dives...AGAIN! Follows it up with a wonder strike to earn Wales a last gasp win over Scotland

To steal the phraseology of the Dragon’s Den, let me tell you where I am on this business with Bale and the diving allegations.

Take Joey Barton. Here’s a guy who’s apologists swore blind wasn’t a menace to society. Not really. When he wasn’t headbutting people playing football, ordinarily you might find him reading Nietzsche, humming a memorable refrain from a show tune, that sort of thing.

But Barton has been endlessly revealed for what he really is: the kinda guy in the centre of an affray outside a kebab shop.

And then there is Luis Suarez. Here’s  a guy who’s apologists swore blind he wasn’t a cheat. Not Really. When he wasn’t pretending to have been shot playing football, ordinarily you might find him playfully calling his wife ‘Negrito’, or being fed a carrot by a passing Scouser, that sort of thing.

But Suarez has been endlessly revealed for what he really is: the kinda guy that makes the ‘Boy Who Cried Wolf’ story positively autobiographical.

My belief with Gareth Bale is that he fundamentally isn’t a cheat. I base this upon the fact that he never used to get caught up in all this hoo-ha after virtually every game. So it’s not something he can’t help doing because he was born with deceit flowing through his veins.

But he is perilously close to finding himself tarred with the same brush as the two charmers above.If the allegations keep n coming, keep on mounting up then he will find himself in the ridiculous and unenviable position whereby after virtually every match he’s having to explain away an incident that happened in nanoseconds to him, but the world has watched in slo-mo from 47 different angles again and again and again.

He needs to actively take steps to distance himself from the allegations. I don’t mean play at 80%, but rather make a real effort to stay on his feet.

Yes there is a very valid argument for him avoiding potentially dangerous contact. But you can’t simply shout, ‘Wot about Charlie Adam, he’s a thug!’ every time this happens. It doesn’t work like that. Adam wasn’t the player chasing him in the incident above, nor to the best of my knowledge did Adam fee-lance for Aston Villa last week.

So am I saying nobody’s allowed to defend Bale? No, of course not. Specifically what I am saying is that Bale is the only man able to nip this ‘recent fad’ in the bud. I don’t want to have to hear Spurs fans sounding like Liverpool fans after virtually every game. Barrack room lawyers defending a client is far from ‘clearly’ innocent makes my skin crawl.

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58 comments

  • melcyid says:

    the only way to stop him is with 2-3 defenders to crowd the pitch around him gangnam style before he takes off.
    I reckon when he leaves us it will be for at least double what ratboy went for.

    • spursgoliath says:

      Ooh sexy gangnam style

    • Hot_Spur says:

      Yes 2 or 3 ganging up on him is the only way but then that leaves a couple of opposing players out of position and therefore space for our other forwards to create havoc. Whichever was the opposition play it they’re on a loser.

  • Ronnie Wolman says:

    The Three Romnies…

    http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/08/11/article-0-00216DC700000258-50_468x517.jpg

    I look down at him because he is a left winger and dives

    I look up at him because I am a striker and he is a winger and he’s bigger than I am

    I look down at him because he is left winger that often veers to the right

  • Jbo says:

    The thing is if you look at the top top players of the last 30 years they have all done it… Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldo, maradona, Thierry Henry, messi, klinsmann, etc. I think long term it shifts the power back to bale as defenders will be shit scared to go in hard and will allow him more time on the ball to utilise his blistering pace and skill. He is a world class player and if and when he goes to Madrid or Barca I’m sure their fans will not mind if he wins pens, free kicks, goals, points through turning a 50/50 ball in his team’s favour. Long may he don a spurs shirt!

  • wowsers says:

    I like Bale’s response. It was a pen and he knows it.

  • ForeverInOurShadow says:

    You should be debating simulation. Not if theres enough contact to fall down and win a penalty.
    Simulation is cheating. Bale constantly simulates contact. Exaggeration is just as much cheating as going down under no contact. Both are simulation, both are trying to con the ref.
    I am laughing at your defence of him during the Villa match – he anticipated a challenge? Well, if thats true, why was Bale not interested in saying so? Because he could have told the ref and the Villa keeper that he was “avoiding a challenge that wasnt there”, when he threw himself to the floor.
    By the way, when avoiding a challenge, it would be far more honest to jump out of the way rather than crumpling into a heap.

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