12 popular English football returns including ex-Burnley ace which shows how Gareth Bale back to Spurs could go one of two ways
By Joel Sked
Published 16th Sep 2020, 16:58 GMT
Updated 16th Sep 2020, 16:59 GMT
How English football stars have fared on returning to former clubs
Tottenham Hotspur are keen on bringing Gareth Bale back to the Premier League in a huge move, seven season after he departed for Real Madrid. He netted more than 100 goals for the Spanish giants in 251 matches, winning a raft of trophies including two La Ligas and four Champions League titles.
Gareth Bale may be making an appearance at Turf Moor next season. Picture: Getty
The old adage is that you never go back, that it wouldn’t be the same. In recent English football history that has been the case in some circumstances but there have been incidents of success, even if it is short-lived.
We have taken a look at some of the hits and misses of players returning to a former club. Click and scroll to find out how certain stars got on.
A transformative signing for Chelsea in 2004, he hit double figures for the club in eight successive seasons. His return for a season in 2014/15 did bring with it too many goals but he did a Premier League and League Cup.
More than 170 goals in 330 games saw Liverpool fans call him ‘God’. There are few better nicknames for a footballer. Spells at Leeds United and Manchester City followed but he never recaptured the goalscoring form of the mid-90s, even when he did return to Anfield.
Third tier, second tier or first tier, Glenn Murray has scored goals for the Seagulls across two spells with more than 110 strikes to his name, including two double figure seasons in the Premier League. In between his spells he also played for rivals Crystal Palace.
When the Frenchman left Old Trafford in 2012, it was believed the club were losing a gem and so it proved with Pogba emerging as a totemic figure for Juventus across four Serie A winning campaigns. Manchester United were forced to hand over a near £90m for him to come back.
