Monday, 2nd December, 2013
Gareth Bale has backed under-pressure Tottenham Hotspur manager Andre Villas-Boas and called for the Portuguese to be given time at White Hart Lane.
Bale worked under Villas-Boas at Tottenham last season, ending the association when he switched to Real Madrid in a near £100m summer move.
That allowed Spurs to spend over £100m on a whole host of new players, but Villas-Boas still only has the side sitting ninth in the Premier League at present and is under immense pressure.
It was even speculated he could have been sacked had Tottenham lost against Manchester United yesterday; in the event they drew 2-2.
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Bale admits he is keeping a close watch on his old club, telling BT Sport in an exclusive interview: "I have been watching quite a lot of the matches.
"They have been playing some good stuff. But they have been very unlucky in front of goal and just haven’t been clinical enough.
"I think they have created the most chances in the league or had the most shots and they haven’t converted lots of them.
"On another day they might have got some more goals and with some luck things might be slightly different. But that’s not the case and they just need to keep working hard at it and not lose too much confidence."
The Real Madrid star also feels that Tottenham should keep faith with Villas-Boas, who he rates as a "great" manager.
"He should be given time he is a great manager, he showed that last year.
"They are going through a little bit of a bad patch but I am sure he is a good enough manager to pull everybody through and get out the other side and go on a bit of a good run, and hopefully catch up the rest and have a good season."
BT Sport has exclusively live TV coverage of three Barclays Premier League games this week–Crystal Palace v West Ham (Tues Dec 3), Swansea v Newcastle (Weds Dec 4) and Man Utd v Newcastle (Sat Dec 7). Go to btsport.com for info.
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