Gareth Bale's time at Tottenham this season has gone from bad to worse, with Jose Mourinho calling out the Welsh superstar in a press conference for his recent Instagram post.
The Real Madrid attacker who rose to fame at White Hart Lane secured a return to north London via a season-long loan, but things have not gone according to plan for the fan favorite. The Welshman has found game time hard to come by under the Special One's reign, with the Portuguese tactician having issues with the player's fitness and attitude.
Even in Harry Kane's absence, Bale found it difficult to break into the starting eleven. Whenever Mourinho was asked about the attacker's situation, he would give snappy answers, hinting at an annoyance with the loan spell. However, things have hit a new height with the manager calling out the player ahead of their crucial trip to Man City.
Gareth recently posted on IG that he had a "good session" prior to Tottenham's FA Cup clash with Everton, which they lost 5-4. Having given the impression that he was fit, journalists pressed Mourinho on this matter as the Welshman was excluded from the squad altogether. This lead to Jose hitting out at the loanee over his "totally wrong" social media post.
"Since the beginning of the season in relation to everything I tried to be very private and keep everything indoors but I felt I needed to address the situation," the Special One explained, as per the Daily Mail.
"Probably the post was not even his responsibility, I don't know, but the post was showing that training session was great so I'm ready and was totally wrong.
"He was not feeling good, he asked for the scan, had the scan, the scan didn't show an injury but his feelings were still there and coaches and sports science and medical people, we can never go against the feelings because the players feelings are much more important than all of us so he was not ready for the game, it is as simple as that.
"If he's ready for tomorrow he is selected for tomorrow."
It remains to be seen whether Bale will play a part in the highly-anticipated trip to the Etihad Stadium given the return of Harry Kane and the Englishman's excellent partnership with Heung-Min Son. Tottenham currently sit eighth in the table, boasting 36 points, and are in danger of falling seven points behind in the top-four race. As a result, this is a must-win fixture for Spurs.
