Shades of Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo as Gareth Bale takes inside track to greatness in Tottenham's title chase

Walking behind Bale, who is much stronger than he looks on television, it clicks in your head. This could be British football’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

The best Welsh flier since Ryan Giggs still sports the No 3 shirt of a left-back. His name is up in lights for the torture he inflicts on right-backs as Tottenham’s outside left. But Bale is on the move, along Ronaldo’s path, in a season that will test his wish to be more than a touchline demon.

The initiative came from him, he reveals, and was not a Harry Redknapp masterstroke. Bale felt he had evolved far enough as a winger and wanted to stretch his talents. “I need to improve myself as a player and I spoke to the coaches at Tottenham about it,” he says. “Being stuck outside is not good all the time. You need to mix your game up and give the opposition things to think about. It’s one of those things I wanted to do and I’m starting to do it.”

As recently as last season, after Bale had tormented Inter Milan’s Maicon, one of the world’s best defenders, Redknapp theorised that left-back might yet be the ideal starting point for this modest 22 year-old who shared a school class with Sam Warburton, the Wales rugby captain. The idea was that a deep position would offer him a longer run-up and render him even more devastating to opposing full-backs.

“I hope not,” Bale smiles, now. “I want to stick in midfield.” When he says midfield, though, he means through the centre, increasingly, as he comes off his wing to take up a strike position behind the centre-forward. The template was his second against Norwich at Carrow Road last month, when he gathered a pass near the halfway line and flew down the middle to clip the ball round the Norwich keeper inside the penalty box.

There were echoes of that goal in Ronaldo’s opening blow against Barcelona in Wednesday night’s Copa del Rey quarter-final first-leg in Madrid. Bale is unlikely to develop Ronaldo’s centre-forward poaching skills or to ever lead the line, even in Emmanuel Adebayor’s absence against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium tomorrow. He is, however, in a fresh stage of development, only partly enforced by double and even triple-teaming out on the wing.

He takes up the story: “It got to the stage last year when I was standing out on the wing, playing well, with a lot of freedom, hurting teams and being targeted by defences. So it was a case of some teams putting two players on me, staying really tight and trying to mark me out of the game, which is quite easy to do when you’re stood right out there with not much room.

“So I’ve had to adapt my game. The full-back can’t follow you inside and strikers occupy the centre-backs, so it gives you that bit of space. It’s not easy. It’s a lot tighter in the middle but if you get into lots of pockets and you’re able to turn and run at defenders it’s just as good as being out on the wing. To be a better a player I needed to mix my game up anyway, whether I was being marked or not.”

The challenge, he says, is one of vision and perspective: “When you’re out wide you see everything in front of you, really. It’s similar to playing full-back. Everything’s there. When you’re in the middle your back’s to goal and you’ve got to turn and then see everything, which is a lot more difficult. If I’m not getting the ball I’m not helping the team and I want to be involved, get as much of the ball as I can, so that’s why I’ve had to go inside to be a positive influence on the game.”

Tottenham Hotspur's game-changing talents remain in a tantalising position. Last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Wolves deflated only slightly the external hype of title-winning hopes. Spurs travel to City tomorrow without the striker they borrowed from their rivals and at the start of a hard run of games that also takes in trips to Liverpool and Arsenal and a home fixture against Manchester United.

The catalytic benefit of Adebayor’s loan signing will be lost on a genuinely super Sunday (Arsenal host United, too) but Bale seems untroubled. “[Jermain] Defoe has led the line for England and us before. He may not be able to win many balls in the air but he’s one of the strongest players I’ve seen on the ball. I’m sure he can do a fantastic job up there for us.” TV tends to portray Bale as a lanky, wispy winger, easy to upend with one kick to a shin. The pace of his running speeds up the velocity of his falls and each tumble induces a wince, as if he might break under the impact.

Forget that. Up close, he is closer to Warburton in physique than TV pictures suggest. His middle section is all power. A faintly brutish strength has come along with age to support his athletic brilliance.

We spoke at a Spurs community project — F.I.T. — Fitness in Tottenham — which encourages wellbeing for local residents. The club chose him, presumably, for his gleaming, superhero healthiness. All the Spurs staff revere him for his good nature and talent. “He’s no trouble,” is a phrase you hear often. “He’s a racehorse,” one admirer says.

He is not alone. Tottenham’s rise has featured much enterprise and artistry across the side and Bale thinks he knows why: “The good thing about the gaffer is that if you’re good at something he wants you to do it. He lets you express yourself.

“He wants me and Aaron [Lennon] to take on the full-back every time we get the ball, he wants Jermain and Ade to get in the box, Luka [Modric] to get on the ball, Rafa [Van der Vaart] to get on the ball and thread passes.

“Modric is one of those who gets in pockets. He can drop a shoulder and thread a pass through. He’s starting to score a few more goals now which can help the team.”

Adebayor came at the same time as Scott Parker, the insurance against collapse when Spurs are surging forward. Bale says: “Scotty is one of those midfielders that just sets the tempo for everybody. He gives everyone else the spark to go with him. That’s been a massive key for Spurs.”

The two August defeats to City and United (8-1 on aggregate) have left no discernible fear of Manchester clubs. “As soon as those games gave us a kick up the bum we kicked on from there and grew as a team.”

Talking of teams, Bale was the first to be photographed in a GB Olympic jersey and wants to play next summer (“as long as all parties are happy I don’t see any reason why not”) and is adamant Wales must continue along the route laid out by the late Gary Speed.

He offered his views on the Wales manager job before Chris Coleman was appointed on Thursday and he may now need to adjust to the reality of Raymond Verheijen, Speed’s assistant, not being retained.

This is what Bale said on Wednesday about the succession: “Me and a few of the other players have talked. We’re playing well at the moment and our football’s probably the best we’ve played, certainly since I’ve been there. And we’re actually winning games. He [Verheijen] is doing a lot of technical work with our shape, he’s definitely carrying on what he was doing with Gary Speed.

“I think we need to continue to do that. To change a manager and the whole structure or set-up is kind of crazy when we’ve got the World Cup qualifiers starting maybe in six months’ time. I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.”

Speed deserves posthumous credit for encouraging him to roam from the flanks into the heart of the action. At an earlier stage in his development Bale found himself emasculated in Wales; handicapped by his own school.

Is it true that his PE teachers banned him from using his left foot in games to give the other lads a chance? “In games lessons, a few times,” he laughs. “I was quite annoyed. I just wanted to score goals. I tried to sneak a left foot shot in now and then.” Like Ronaldo, this is a player who defies constraints.

The Tottenham Hotspur Foundation aims to create opportunities that change lives for people in the club’s community. Gareth Bale was speaking at a tennis session as part of the Fitness In Tottenham (F.I.T) healthy living campaign.