For anyone who has seen the film Zoolander (and without casting too many aspersions, I'm going to guess not many of you have), cast your mind to the scene where Will Farrell is screaming about Zoolander only having one look, and feeling like he's on crazy pills for bring the only one to see through the madness.
It sums up my feelings on Bale perfectly. The guy does two bloody things, run, and always cut to his left foot to cross. His performance against Inter in the first leg he got so much praise for, he hoofed it around Maicon, beat him in nothing more than a running race, and scored 3 nion identical sodding goals! Every time I see him what does he do? Try and be clever, hoof it, run onto it and hit it with his left foot. If he has nowhere to run? Tap it about before, surprise, cutting onto his left foot. It's not surprising in the least he's been kept completely and utterly silenced by a few full backs this season already, anyone with even half an ounce of sense by the looks of it.
Modric must be seriously pissed off at all the constant Bale hype. He's a far better player.
Needs another season at the very least. See if more fullbacks get wise to him, see if he can expand his game to counter it. Until then he's little more than media hysteria with a fair assist/goal record.