Ledley King has admitted that he expected to see a different side to Gareth Bale when the Welshman rejoined Tottenham in the summer of 2020. Initially departing the Lilywhites seven years earlier after sealing a big-money move to Real Madrid, the attacker, who called time on his professional career on Monday, returned on a season-long loan deal with first-team opportunities few and far between at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Amid plenty of hope from Tottenham fans that he would form a formidable front three alongside Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, Bale wasn't always a regular under Jose Mourinho but he still contributed with 16 goals in all competitions, with 13 of those coming in the second part of the term. King was part of Mourinho's backroom team that campaign and he initially believed that his former teammate would be a different person following his time and success in Madrid.
“The thing is, Gareth never changed as a person," King told Tottenham's official website following the 33-year-old's decision to retire. "When he came back to the club in 2020 when I was on the coaching staff under Jose Mourinho, I’d thought I’d maybe see a different Gareth to the one who left the club in 2013, but he was exactly the same, always laughing, smiling, joking.
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"It was great for him that he had the Welsh boys here, Ben Davies and Joe Rodon, and he just slipped right back into the club. By then, he was a world superstar, but he never acted like one. He was very much one of the lads, and everyone loved him.”
Taking time to settle in at Tottenham and become a permanent fixture in the side after his move from Southampton in 2007, his best season in a Spurs shirt was undoubtedly his phenomenal 2012/13 campaign. Rising to the occasion time and time again by scoring crucial winning goals, King has claimed that Bale delivered the best individual season he has ever seen.
“I’ll tell the truth, in the earlier days, you could tell things were getting him down a little, like the stat that it took him a while to be on a winning team for us in the Premier League," said King. "It wasn’t really anything to do with him, but he’d hear about it, read about it, and you could see it had a bit of an effect on him, but once he got over that hurdle, he went from strength to strength.
"We all saw a growth in confidence, he worked hard, got stronger and took his game to a whole new level. The season after I retired, 2012/13, I’ll probably say that’s the best individual season I’ve ever seen, in terms of match-winning performances. I think I’m right that he scored nine winning goals for us that season, and most of the goals were spectacular. He was incredible."
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