Media view: Terry Gibson on Sergio Reguilon (and Bale)

Spurs fan, our former player and a Spanish football expert with years of experience as a pundit on Sky Sports and now La Liga TV, Terry Gibson knows the Spanish game inside-out and has watched intently the return of Gareth Bale and arrival of Sergio Reguilon.

We all know Gareth, so we turned to Terry for his insight into Sergio, the flying full-back we’ve signed on a deal until 2025, a product of Real Madrid’s youth system who went on loan to Sevilla last season and helped them land the Europa League.

Now 57, Terry came through the system at Spurs to score seven goals in 26 appearances between 1979-83, including a double on his debut aged just 17 in 1979. An FA Cup winner with Wimbledon in 1988, Terry also played for Manchester United and Coventry, coached Northern Ireland and is a Pro Licence holder.

The Reguilon story...

Terry: "Sergio Reguilon came into the Real Madrid team not last season, but the season before (2018/19) when Santiago Solari took over as manager. Marcelo is great going forward but not so great defensively, they wanted to shake things up and he brought this youngster in called Sergio Reguilon. He certainly improved them defensively, didn’t go forward as much as Marcelo, but that’s what Real Madrid wanted at that stage. He didn’t want Marcelo bursting up front and not getting back, he wanted a full-back. The first impression was that he certainly made them better defensively and he was solid, tenacious, didn’t mind putting his foot in and for a young player stepping into the first team at Real Madrid, he did excellently. But then Zinedine Zidane came back and went back to Marcelo, then they brought in Ferland Mendy from Lyon for big money, so Reguilon was allowed to go out on loan."

Flourishing at Sevilla...

Terry: "At Sevilla, we saw a different player, an attacking full-back. His instructions at Real Madrid were to be better defensively than Marcelo, which he did, but that meant we didn’t really know about him going forward. Sevilla played with two attacking full-backs, Reguilon and Jesus Navas, and both were really important players. He developed into a full-back who was excellent going forward, great quality in the final third and, at the same time, he had the energy to get back, so up and down the pitch for 90 minutes. It was a great loan spell for him, capped by winning the Europa League. He’s a competitor, a winner, fiercely determined and this a player brought up at Real Madrid, so he has that background. The year at Sevilla was fantastic, he was a regular, an important player right up there with the best left-backs in La Liga. He also made his debut for Spain, and that place is up for grabs. It was no surprise clubs were interested, and it’s great to see him at Spurs."

Terry on Bale...

Terry: "It’s brilliant news. I’ll never understand how it all ended up at Real Madrid, but we’re not complaining, are we? I think we’ll have to be patient, but hopefully we’ll soon see him flying again and I have no doubt he can get back to the form we all saw in his early days at Real Madrid and at Spurs. Some of the goals he scored for Real Madrid... incredible goals. At one stage, Benzema-Bale-Ronaldo were brilliant together and he more than played his part in that. I’m sure he just wants to get out there and show us all that he’s still that world-class player, and we all look forward to seeing it!"