The Madridistas are 100% wrong about Our Gareth

Gareth's trademark er, shape thing

As the bookies fall over each other to shorten the odds on Gareth Bale returning to the Premier League this summer, spare a thought for the man himself.

Pilloried everywhere he roams, on the pitch even in the car park, Gareth Bale is a man under pressure to perform at Real Madrid.

But the world’s most expensive player is at the Bernabeu for a reason.

Here is a young Welshman, who through sheer weight of personality and self-belief, forced his way from left-back to wing back to left-winger and finally centre-forward, scoring half of Tottenham’s goals the season before last.

All this via a loan spell at Nottingham Forest, where he was nearly offloaded.

From the Real Madrid museum at the Bernabeu

If his first season at Real was dreamy, his second has proved a rude awakening

Stooping to score a brilliant header befitting the Champions League Final, he also used every sinew of his admirable physique to score one of the goals of the season in the Copa Del Rey Final.

Two trophies, two great goals and a gaggle of ungrateful, spoilt Real fans with short memories.

How dare those fans kick his car while driving out of Madrid’s training ground after defeat in Barcelona. Had Ronaldo not been offside, he'd have scored.

And the 25-year-old should ignore everyone of them. He’s earned the right to play for the Galacticos.

Champions League night at the Bernabeu

And he is a Galactico.

Not only that, he's a man of character. Just look at the vigour and patriotism with which he dons the Welsh shirt. How his performances have put Wales in with a shout of qualifying for a major tournament for the first time in two generations.

The man towers above the Madrid booboys, literally and metaphorically. What have they done but pay a few quid for their tickets year-after-year? Sure they can boo (if it empowers them) – but they don't have the right to hooliganism.

Tough it out and rise above it, Gareth.  The Madridistas are absolutely wrong about you.