Gareth Bale exited Tottenham Hotspur for a massive $137.10 million transfer fee, ranked the largest transfer cost of all-time, and former Spurs manager Martin Jol knew that chairman Daniel Levy was shopping around the speedy footballer in the 2008-2009 season.
Jol believes Bale was utilized incorrectly at the start of his time at White Hart Lane, and that’s the reason why he wasn’t of extreme importance to the squad at that point in time.
“Bale’s outcome at Spurs could have been a lot different. Spurs saw Bale as a left-back, but he probably wasn’t the best left-back in the world,” he said, via Sky Sports.
In fact, Jol was managing at Hamburg, and actually inquired about the purchase of the youngster for around $8 million.
“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.”
The Dutchman, regardless of the small asking price, saws Bale’s upside that has blossomed into the magnificent talent of a world-class player.
“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.”
And even though Bale’s cost was insignificant in comparison to the present day, the German club just could’t muster the cash to complete his acquisition.
“We had to pay a lot of money to get him though, 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.”