Should Tottenham take Angel Di Maria, Fabio Coentrao and cash for Gareth Bale?

Angel Di Maria

Selling Bale is selling the best player in the Premier League. He scored 31 goals in all competitions last season, which would outgun most top strikers, and he did it from a variety of positions, often from out wide. Spurs’ best form came when AVB moved Bale centrally and he was able to use his pace and direct running for most devastating impact. In these central areas he was able to score more goals and cause more chaos.

His positioning, off the ball running and mostly noticeably, finishing have all improved rapidly under the tutelage of Villas-Boas who is one of the top coaching managers in the world. He has taken Bale from very good, to a player Real Madrid have made a world record bid for. The question for Bale is, would he be able to continue this level of improvement at Real where he would be second in command to the omnipotent Ronaldo.

At Spurs, he is the unquestioned main man, their key player. Time and again last season he morphed in to ‘SuperBale’ swooping in to rescue victories for Spurs which kept them in contention for the top four in the first place. Even with other quality players in the team it was still Bale that the opposition feared. Quieten Bale and you quieten Spurs. He loved the role of the hero and thrived on it, able to produce magic in unlikely moments. See his inspirational showing in the win at Old Trafford or the late show at West Ham. Without him, they wouldn’t have been close to Arsenal last season.

Although Di Maria is a classy player, capable of scoring wonderful goals or moments of stunning skill, he doesn’t have the game breaking ability that Bale does. Although he is a seriously high quality player, he is best when he is one of a number of threats, rather than as the shining light. He hasn’t yet shown that he can consistently win games on his own.

Although he is an excellet player, and excellent complimentary piece, his game is raised by other quality players and doesn’t have the Bale-esque fizzle to make something from nothing. The argument against Coentrao swinging this deal, is that Spurs have three first team claibre left backs in Rose, Naughton and Assou-Ekotto and that although Coentrao is an upgrade, is it worth losing one of the three most dangerous attacking players in the world in order to upgrade at left back? Certainly the role is important in modern football, but important enough for it to be the seal on the deal? It doesn’t seem so.

The £50m would of course be useful, but with £26m of it possibly already accounted for on Soldado, and not to mention payments to be made on the new stadium under construction, it’s debatable as to how much of it will actually be made available for new signings. If none of it was to be made available, and the new stadium isn’t going to come cheap so it’s no guarantee that much of it will, then this is essentially a swap of Bale for Di Maria and Coentrao. An inferior forward and a player in a position of marginal value. It’s certainly something to ponder over.

Summary

This is a harder decision for Spurs than it might seem to be. Although they were right to reject the stright cash offer, this makes a lot of sense. However, that is assuming that the extra cash is going to be spent on quality, rather than vanishing. Although Di Maria and Coentrao are top class players, Spurs are probably about as good as they’d be with Bale in the team overall, so it’s a sideways step. However, if they can then sign a top class central defender along with Soldado or even another wide forward as well, then they may have to pull the trigger. Of course, that is if the offer actually exists!