Gareth Bale phoned home in September when he returned to Tottenham Hotspur. 

Since then, it's been a strange - some might say 'alien' - experience for the Welshman under Jose Mourinho. 

Despite the initial fanfare, the 31-year-old was never going to receive the same adulation he enjoyed in his first spell at the club, which ended in 2013. 

And while he's certainly had his moments - his braces against Burnley and Crystal Palace spring to mind - he's only played 59 minutes of Premier League football since his double sank the Eagles.

In the meantime, that's given the forward plenty of time to search for signs of intelligent life on the Tottenham bench.

Bale's long been known to have his eccentricities, with his Real Madrid teammates on occasion struggling to rub along with him. 

In a chat with Tottenham and international teammate Joe Rodon on Spurs TV, however, he went full tinhat as he began talking about his belief in the extraterrestrial. 

When the subject came up, Rodon began: "We've had a long discussion about this. I'm not going to say they don't exist so I'll say, not to cause an argument, I'm not against it or for it. I know you believe in it."

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Bale responded: 

"There's a lot of conspiracy theories and there's footage of UFOs out there that's been released by the US Government.

"There is definitely, 100 per cent aliens. 100 per cent. There's been video footage released.

"I know some UFOs are probably secret government things. I actually have [seen a UFO] once. I actually have."

Riiiight....

You can see the full footage of Bale and Rodon's bizarre exchange below: 

Bale will be hoping for another other-worldly performance on Sunday when Spurs host Manchester United. 

The last time the two sides met, the Lilywhites ran out shock 6-1 winners at Old Trafford - but an awful lot's happened since then. 

Perhaps in some parallel universe, Tottenham would be enjoying a far better campaign and wouldn't be going into the encounter as underdogs and with Jose Mourinho fighting for his future.