The Welshman's performance in Tuesday night's historic Champions League win over Inter Milan made headlines across Europe on Wednesday morning, while he surely can never have experienced the kind of media scrum that greeted him at an event in central London later in the day. But the unassuming 21-year-old from Cardiff appeared to take it all in his stride in exactly the same manner as he did in repeatedly galloping past the hapless Inter defence on Tuesday night. "It's obviously nice to get people talking about you, saying nice things," said Bale at the launch of BT's new football fan website, www.lifesapitch.co.uk. "But I know I have to keep working hard and keep improving and that's all I want to do." That has become something of a mantra for Bale, who is as normal off the pitch as he is extraordinary on it. As his performances have become more and more jaw-dropping - capped by a hat-trick and two assists in two games against Inter - the Wales star has found himself having to answer the same questions over and over again. He was again asked the usual one about speculation linking him with a move away from White Hart Lane, unsurprisingly giving his stock response. "I don't take too much notice of it," he said. "Obviously, when I speak to the media a lot, people say stuff. "But I try not to look at newspapers and just keep my feet on the floor." More of the usual platitudes followed. "I'm just enjoying playing my football at Tottenham," he said. "I'm learning every week, the manager's got confidence in me, the team's playing well, and we've got a good, young squad coming through. "I'm just happy at Tottenham now; I just want to keep playing my football there and keep progressing as a player." Asked why he was playing so well, he replied: "I think it's a bit of everything. "The team's playing well, the manager's got confidence in us, I feel as though I'm improving as a player and I think when all those things come together, you get good performances. "The whole team showed that." He added: "Any player who's on a good run and the team's doing well, we never want it to stop." Ambition might ultimately tempt Bale away from Spurs but the winger is adamant he can realise his at White Hart Lane. "I think we can achieve what we want," he said. "We've got a great squad, we've got a young squad and we've got a good manager. "If we keep progressing the way the way we are then we've got a lot of bright stuff in the future to come." That includes continuing their remarkable debut season in the Champions League. "We're not in the competition just to make up the numbers; we want to do as well as we can," Bale said. "We're going to go into every game looking to win it; we're going to give it our all, and the most important thing is we take one game at a time and not get too carried away with everything." It is unclear to whom Bale owes his unflappable demeanour but he is certainly keen to model himself on idol Ryan Giggs. "He's shown, ever since he made his debut, what a good player and what a good person he is for football," Bale said. "He's an amazing person to follow and hopefully I can come a little bit near him." With comparisons already being made with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, that may not be such a tall order.
