The booking for the Gardner ‘foul’ the other day was unfortunate, as I believe the Sunderland player made NO ATTEMPT to play the ball, and every attempt (without really using any significant amount of force)to adversely effect Bales stride/balance and focus.

But I’m not buying the argument about the slightest of touches being enough to send a 6ft 2 + man, built like a finely tuned machine, sprawling through the air either! Especially, when, as you pointed out, you’ve got a shorter man of equal speed playing on the other wing, who has to my recollection never attempted anything remotely resembling a dive, despite getting kicked just as much!!!

I think a lot of it boils down to mindset, and to be fair Bale has always come across as being a bit ‘soft’. I mean ‘Arry’ said as much recently. When asked about how he had managed to extract the kind of form we are now seeing from the Welshman, part of ‘Arrys’ reply was “I told him to toughen up”. And to be fair, he needed to.

Too many times in the past Gareth would take a challenge that would floor him for about 2/3 mins, AND THEN require him to leave the field of play to receive treatment (for another 2/3 mins), before limping back on the pitch, eventually. I mean, as a Spurs supporter you would hold your breath EVERY time he got tackled and went down, for fear that he might actually, SERIOUSLY be injured and out for a large part of the remaining season. While Aaron Lennon, on the other side, gets a kick, goes down, instantly sits up, holds his ankle for a while and then gets on with it. Usually without leaving the field.

Long story short Bale is tainting (slightly) what looks like being a glittering career, denying his team of goal-scoring opportunities (i.e. Sunderland, where if he had stayed on his feet, Spurs surely would’ve had a great chance to score, again) and depriving the club that pays him so handsomely, of his services, for what could end up being, key games!

In the latest Liverpool game, where Rodgers made such an issue of Bale diving, for instance, Skrtel had been awarded a yellow card for scything Bale down, when it should have been a red (Brendan didn’t mention that). And it was later when Bale went down, after being fouled, and all of the focus was on whether it was a bit theatrical or not.

Apart from anything else, these is so much focus on it, and he has been punished for it ANYWAY – whether he was fouled, theeatrical or what. In the meantime, real divers, the ones who are standing still and haven’t been touched and throw themselves down, are being awarded free-kicks and penalties, and when anyone mentions it, that team’s fans start squealing “what about Bale? what about Bale?”. And then there is the ultimate, Louis Suarez, who I have again seen stamping on an opponents standing shin, and then throwing himself down, rolling around and getting up rubbing his head and looking at his hands as if he expects to see blood – when replays show that not one part of the player he has just assaulted has gone anywhere near his head for there to be any blood! And any mention of it and Liverpool fans start squealing “what about Bale? what about Bale?”.

And the funny thing is, I used to be a sprinter and also played on the wing and I can tell you, categorically, that when you are running at speed like that, and especially trying to control a football, even the slightest touch ‘does’ make you go over, and it is natural to try to avoid injury by throwing your arms out.

It is bad enough non-Spurs fans being obsessed with the minor sin of his theatrical falls when he is actually being fouled, and then punished, but for a Spurs fan to follow that agenda, to me, is just sad.

And I have freely admitted, in the past, when other Spurs players have dived, and I don’t like to see it.