No it was Bale who got the best out of Bale. A player as good as that will always perform when he want's to progress. In Bale's case he would still have prospered had Redknapp been at the helm.

Bossman

So he just sat back biding his time when Redknapp was there, playing to only a percentage of his capabilities?

Not having a go, just trying to follow your logic.

I agree that a part of it was obviously on Bale, but I can't see that it's a coincidence that Bale stepped up a couple of gears when AVB came around.

World class players will always step it up when it's their time to raise the gears. In Bale's case it was only a matter of time and that happened to be when ABV was the manager.

Yes fair's fair AVB got the best out of Bale - whilst everything else suffered.

What is meant by "papering over the cracks" is more that we won games we didn't deserve to just because of a last minute goal - and that type of strategy will never last.

It's an amateur tactic - and we were in a false position because of it.

Lets not make any more excuses for AVB. He should never have been appointed in the first place.