Soccer: Madrid boss backs Bale to deliver goods

Gareth Bale has had a difficult start to his Real Madrid career. Photo / Getty Images

Will the real Gareth Bale please stand up? Carlo Ancelotti, coach of Real Madrid, says he trusts the moment is at hand for the world's most expensive footballer to start justifying that suffocating price tag in the most searing of all spotlights at Barcelona's Nou Camp (played early this morning).

The Bale questions continue to swirl around Madrid incessantly and urgently. Is he properly fit yet? Is he really worth the money? Is he overpriced, overrated and over here? Or trying too hard? If he was not quite so brilliant, wealthy and privileged, it might even be possible to feel a pang of sympathy for the Welshman because a debut in El Clasico is the most unforgiving possible date to feel you have to demonstrate your worth.

You can almost feel the anxiety and the impatience of the Madridistas; they want Bale to produce the goods - and they expect it now - but at the same time, talking to the Bernabeu faithful, there is a genuine sense of goodwill towards the likeable young galactico who, they appreciate, has had the misfortune to start his career in Spain while fighting injury and hugely unflattering comparisons with the scorching form of Cristiano Ronaldo.

A total of 174 minutes is no amount of time to judge him so he still gets the benefit of the doubt, especially with the growing feeling, at Madrid's Valdebebas training ground and within Bale's camp, that their champion is now fit and raring to go.

With such optimism, though, comes only added pressure on a bloke who has at times looked to be labouring with an almost over-zealous keenness to impress because he must feel he has to remind everyone what the fuss is all about. Ancelotti, for one, thinks his moment for altered fortunes is nigh.

"It is true that he hasn't had an easy time but he's worked hard and we've used the international break to improve his condition. And now in my opinion - and his opinion - he is ready to play from the beginning and when he begins to play it will be the real Bale," Ancelotti said.

"Since he has been here he has had no pain in his back," the Italian added, dismissing alarming tales about disc protrusions which appeared in the Spanish press. "His problem was conditioning. He hadn't trained but now he is fine."

Indeed, it seems that Bale has been so keen to recover top shape after his thigh trouble that even his Spanish lessons have supposedly had to take a back seat while he has been undertaking extra training sessions.

On Thursday, after a decidedly underwhelming cameo against Juventus, though, Bale hardly inspired a world of confidence when he shrugged how he was "not sure" if he was fit to play from the start of El Clasico - but he looked in sprightly nick on a miserable, wet afternoon at Valdebebas, when he was not chatting to his old Tottenham pal Luka Modric.

All of which does not necessarily mean that Bale would make only his second start since his bright hour, featuring his only goal, in the season opener at Villarreal.

It looks a 50-50 shot. Such has been the disenchantment about Karim Benzema's form, there has been talk of Ronaldo, Bale and Angel di Maria providing a swift, three-pronged attack to exploit Barca's perceived vulnerability behind cavalier fullbacks.

Ancelotti likes the idea of Bale powering down the right, where Di Maria has been so impressive this season, having scored three and made three in his past four matches. Indeed, Di Maria is so important to Ancelotti that he revealed that he was happy to let Mesut Ozil depart for Arsenal.

"It was a technical decision. I preferred to have Di Maria. He has less quality than Ozil but, for his character and help he gives the team, I wanted him.

"With the arrival of Bale, I thought it more important to have Di Maria than Ozil, looking at the team's overall balance."

Still, Ancelotti could let Bale take the right flank while employing the Argentine on the other side.

"If you ask Bale, he says he prefers to play from the right," Ancelotti said. "I think he likes to start there so he can come inside to shoot on his left foot."

What a night it would be to reprise one of his Lane specials.

Everyone, even the unlikely paternalistic figure of Ronaldo, has been doing their bit to rush to Bale's defence, as if this sensitive soul actually needs it.

Barca's old ringmaster, Johan Cruyff, told Bale's critics to get off his back with his observation: "Buying a player for that huge sum means the lad will have problems because he will never be judged normally. It is going to be very tough for him and it's not fair."

But what did fairness ever have to do with it? If Madrid lose, falling six points behind Barca with the ominous feeling that another fruitless campaign of catch-up could be on the cards, an under-performing Bale would almost certainly start to become a scapegoat?

Yet this is being too negative. This starry night, the one Bale must have dreamed most about on signing, he must see as an opportunity, not some great burden.

If he can grasp this chance to be judged favourably alongside five more of the world's very best players - his own team-mate Ronaldo and Barcelona's divine quartet of Leo Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and new boy Neymar (who still has his own impressing to do) - then it would be the proper announcement that Bale has arrived and truly belongs.