Gareth Bale has admitted he found Tottenham Hotspur's latest failure to qualify for the Champions League hard to stomach. Bale rounded off a remarkable season on Sunday by scoring his 26th goal of the campaign, but his winner against Sunderland was not enough to earn the club Champions League qualification.
The 23-year-old lit up the competition three seasons ago, starring in the club's run to the quarter-finals, which saw them beat both Milan sides before losing to Real Madrid. And having enjoyed such a successful season personally, the Welshman conceded that he was disappointed to miss out on another shot at European glory.
“It was great to sign off with a great goal in the last minute, but circumstances made it hard to celebrate,” Bale said after picking up the Tottenham player of the season award. “To play the way we have also but to miss out on our objective [Champions League qualification] is very disappointing.”
Bale will play his last match of the season on Thursday when Tottenham meet the Jamaica national team in a friendly in the Bahamas and will discuss his future with Spurs over the coming weeks.
The club are understandably desperate to hold on to their best player and the manager, André Villas-Boas, recently called on the forward to end speculation about his future by signing a new deal at White Hart Lane. For now, the signs look promising for Tottenham. Bale is understood to have agreed an improved £150,000-a-week deal in principle to stay at White Hart Lane, and from his comments after the victory over Sunderland, he seemed in no mood to leave.
"We fought hard this season, the team and the manager have been great," Bale said. "We have got the record points for the club in the Premier League. That would normally be enough to qualify for the Champions League, but it's not meant to be again. It's disappointing, but we will pick ourselves up again. We will just have to regroup and give it another go."
Villas-Boas is keen to build his team around Bale next season, and stressed that significant investment was required to bridge the small gap between themselves and Arsenal. Leandro Damião, Christian Eriksen, Christian Benteke and Heung-Min Son have been mentioned as possible targets.
Bale thinks the foundations are there for Spurs to have a successful 2013-14 season, adding: “It was great to get the win but the clouds just came over and made it a little bit duller, but it’s something we have to learn from, we are a young squad, and we will take it in to the future.”
There will be suitors, however, and Real Madrid will be among them, according to Spain defender Sergio Ramos.
“Gareth Bale is a Real Madrid-quality signing,” Ramos told The Sun. “He has had an exceptional season. He can punish any team in the world and has the footballing qualities we look for in Madrid. I am sure Madrid will not be the only team that want to sign him - but he is the right mould for us.”
