It seems incredible to think after the last number of years, but once upon a team, Gareth Bale was nearly offloaded from Tottenham's books for about £81 million less than what they sold him to Real Madrid.
The former left-back had a dreadful start to his Spurs career, and went on a remarkable run where he didn't taste victory in a Spurs shirt until his 25th game - or two years after signing. Bale was an 84th minute substitute when he came on with the score at 4-0 against Burnley.
It was so bad, that Harry Redknapp revealed today that Sir Alex Ferguson advised him not to play Bale out of superstition. In his column for the Telegraph this morning, Redknapp tells the story of how Bale went from being a jinx into one of the best players in the world. But the line from Sir Alex Ferguson caught our eye.
It happened a few months before that Burnley game, when Redknapp took his Spurs side to Old Trafford. Ferguson had been interested in Bale when he was at Southampton, but Martin Jol pulled off a coup in signing the teenager. After United beat Spurs 5-2, Redknapp says Ferguson told him not to play the Welsh wizard:
After the game, Alex said to me: "Bloody hell, Harry, it must be difficult for you to put him on the field."
Alex was big on superstitions and I am still not sure to this day whether he was joking or not, but it was clearly a huge topic.
It's not clear whether Redknapp took the advice seriously or not given that he broke his duck by bringing the Welshman on with a game already won some five months after that United game. Bale had only two other appearances in the five intervening months.
How times change.
