Gareth Bale’s emotional return to Tottenham on Sunday turned into a nightmare.
The Welshman has had to wait to don a Spurs shirt after arriving from Real Madrid with a knee injury.
But Sunday was the day that everyone has been waiting for. Seven years after leaving the club in an £85.3 million deal, Bale stepped onto the pitch as a Tottenham player.
He couldn’t have asked for better circumstances to ease his way back, coming off the bench in the 72nd-minute with Spurs 3-0 ahead against West Ham.
It would have amazing seeing a sold-out Tottenham Hostpur Stadium give him a standing ovation as he replaced Steven Bergwijn.
His first touch was a 30-yard free-kick. He couldn’t, could he?
No, he couldn’t as his tame free-kick was easily saved by Lukasz Fabianski.
Then, things quickly started going wrong.
Ten minutes after his arrival, Fabian Balbuena made it 3-1. Three minutes later, Davinson Sanchez’s own goal made it 3-2.
Suddenly, what Bale thought was going to be an enjoyable 18-minute cameo turned into him desperately trying to preserve his side’s lead.
However, the Welshman perhaps should have extended Spurs’ lead in injury-time as he produced a brilliant run to get past Angelo Ogbonna only to shoot wide. It would have been a fantastic debut goal but he really should have scored after getting into that position.
Then, the unthinkable happened and Manuel Lanzini scored a quite incredible 94th-minute equaliser to complete a sensational comeback.
So, Bale came on with Spurs 3-0 up, missed a fantastic chance and Spurs ended up drawing 3-3. Bet the media in Madrid loved every second.
And it seems some football fans enjoyed Bale’s disastrous debut too.
That’s because one supporter has made a rather hilarious compilation of Bale’s debut.
It includes his free-kick, giving the ball away three times, a rubbish corner and his missed chance.
Oh dear.
Of course, it wasn’t exactly Bale’s fault that Spurs saw their 3-0 lead completely wiped out.
In fact, his manager Jose Mourinho insisted that his introduction had nothing to do with his side’s collapse.
"Don't think so, honestly don't think so," he said.
"The decision not to start him was I think a good decision. A decision to show that he doesn't have a beautiful chair waiting for him in the team and he sits there the first time he can. It was a message to the team that in this team everybody has to fight for positions.
"He's very well accepted in the group. Everyone likes him, and I believe he also likes what he found here. So everything is positive and the focus was not on him.
"The focus was on the game and he was on the bench for 65 minutes or so and I don't think so, I don't think at all.
"It's a pity that he couldn't score that fourth goal which was a beauty and would have killed the game. But that's football."