Should Gareth Bale stay at Tottenham? Does loyalty really pay off?

The ongoing conjecture surrounding the future of a certain Welshman has led me to do some homework.

Spurs fans to a man will want Gareth Bale to remain at the club. They would do, they’re Spurs fans, they will want to keep their best player.

Neither they, nor the many journalists, pundits and ex players who have provided their unsolicited advice regarding what he should do, will have any influence on his eventual decision.

The player will make his choice, most likely with the advice of family and trusted friends. If his preference is to stay, great! We can all move on for another year. If he chooses to go then he will hope his chairman is more accommodating than he was when Luka Modric informed him of a similar request.

My point is that, we have no sway in this situation and every day as a different angle or ridiculous figure is concocted, it becomes increasingly tiresome. So I have sought to provide a different angle! I want to help Gareth by looking at a player who has had a similar choice to make.

In 2005, Steven Gerrard left Liverpool to join Chelsea. There’s no misprint, for all intents and purposes, he was gone, ritual shirt burnings and everything. Rick Parry, Liverpool’s chief executive at the time, admitted as much “we have done our best, but he has made it clear he wants to go.”

Before you run off to check Sky Sports or retrace exactly what you had to drink in 2005, I’ll put you out of your misery, he didn’t go, he nearly did but he didn’t.

It had been the culmination of two years of rumours and bids and counter rumours and changes of heart but finally the deal was set to happen, then Gerrard changed his mind.

He has since said that he was pleased that he decided to stay:”It would mean an awful lot more to be successful at Liverpool than it would at any other club.

“Don’t get me wrong, I might have won more medals somewhere else but if I was to win the league here, along with a few more cups, that would mean a lot more than winning seven or eight trophies somewhere else.”

That to me is the crux of the issue. Since 2005, Gerrard has won the FA Cup, League Cup, Super Cup and the Community Shield. Chelsea during the same time frame have won, the Champions League, Premier League twice, FA Cup four times, League Cup twice and one Community Shield.

Gerrard made the above statement in 2009 and only he will know how he truly feels about, what he might have won if he’d moved.

It’s unclear whether Bale has the same connection to Spurs that Gerrard has to Liverpool. It’s unlikely but I wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to rule it out. He’s been at the club since he was 17, the club I support and worship only entered my life just prior to my fourteenth birthday.

Ultimately Spurs fans will be praying that Bale is from the Gerrard school of quality over quantity.

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