As a Tottenham fan who lives in Nottingham; I hear it all the time.
‘Did you know that Gareth Bale was going to join Nottingham Forest?’
I have always maintained this to be absolute rubbish, and thankfully I can now lean on Harry Redknapp’s testimony to put it to bed once and for all.
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A 2019 Nottingham Post article details the fictional story of how, 10 years earlier, Spurs had agreed upon a loan-to-buy deal with Forest for Bale, who was then a 20-year-old left-back on the fringes of Redknapp’s first team.
Speaking on BBC Sport’s Peter Crouch podcast, Redknapp refuted that tale absolutely, saying: “Gareth Bale was scary. People tell me all the time that I was going to loan him out before he made it big but I don’t know where that came from. I was never going to loan Gareth out.
“You looked at him and he had everything. What a player.”
And of course, Harry would never lie. Isn’t he still under oath?
There were also reports, cited in The Telegraph in 2008, that Spurs might send Bale to Middlesbrough in part-exchange for Stewart Downing.
Another complete fabrication, in all likelihood.
We’ve made some major boo-boos in the transfer market but I refuse to believe that lining up Bale’s exit was ever close to being one of them.
I don’t know why, it would just taint him in a way. He is the best player I’ve seen at Spurs and it is painful to think what might (not) have been.