Fulham manager Martin Jol has claimed he knew that midfielder Gareth Bale was an exciting player when coaching him at Tottenham Hotspur.

Despite signing him at White Hart Lane, Jol must now decide how to handle the in-form Welshman when his team faces Tottenham this weekend.

Signed

Jol brought the then 17-year-old left back for £5million in 2007, Bale is now rumoured to be worth in region of £40million with footballing giants such as Real Madrid supposedly keen.

Fulham boss Jol saw the potential of Bale six years ago, as he told the London Evening Standard: “I saw Bale at Southampton when he was 15, we followed him and other people came in but I had a few words with his mum to convince him to come to Spurs.

“With hindsight it’s very satisfying, he’s probably the best player in the Premier League at the moment and he shows it week in, week out.

“I played him in his first match against Manchester United and he had better stats than any other player, and he was 17.”

Loyalty

The Dutch manager has expressed his opinion that he would like to see Bale serve entire his career at Tottenham.

This is despite Jol attempting to sign him for Hamburg earlier in his career.

He added: “Hopefully for the league and for Spurs he will stay because I think it’s a very good club for him.

“He’s getting stronger and stronger and playing in the hole he is probably even better.

“I wanted to get him on loan in Germany and other clubs were trying to get him but they did well to keep him, during that spell where he played 24 games without being on the winning side.”

With Bale scoring 11 goals in his last 10 games for Spurs, Jol is going to have a tough job in quelling the midfielder, who seems to have no limits in his game.