Martin Jol has begun his summer spending spree, as he prepares for more European football next season. The Dutchman has signed Gareth Bale from Southampton, after they failed in their bid to get Premiership football through the Championship play-offs.

Bale is the second prodigious talent to make its way up the M3 to a new home in North London, the young Welshman will be hoping to make more of an impact at Spurs than his former Saints team-mate Theo Walcott did at Arsenal.

Spurs had tried to secure the services of Bale in the January window, but he decided to stick with Saints and help their push for the Premiership, the Southampton board deciding that the £30m prize of Premiership football was worth more than the reported £10m Spurs bid. However with just a year left on his contract Saints hand has been forced and they will receive just £5m up front in a deal that could total £10 with other performance related increments.

Bale has taken the Championship by storm and will hope to do the same at Spurs, however he will have to fend off Young Pyo-Lee and Benoit Assou-Ekotto to secure a starting place alongside Dawson, King and Chimbonda in the Tottenham defence.

Bale has started on the right foot with the Spurs fans when he told the club’s website “I am just excited to be coming to a big club, a massive club like Tottenham”, he continued saying “I want to play in the Premiership, Tottenham is a club pushing forward and I want to be part of its future”.