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Jol: Spurs tried to sell £5m Bale
TOTTENHAM tried to offload Gareth Bale to Hamburg for just £5m five years before the Wales winger’s sale to Real Madrid fetched a world record £86m, says ex-Spurs boss Martin Jol.
Jol, who took Bale to Tottenham from Southampton, wanted to take up the offer to sign him for the German club during the 2008-09 season but that his paymasters could not raise the funds.
“Spurs saw Bale as a left-back, but he probably wasn’t the best left-back in the world,” he said. “I saw his potential straight away, but others 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. So yes, Hamburg could have bought Bale for £5m because he couldn’t get in the side.”