Looking back: Preston North End's visit to Southampton in August 2006 when Gareth Bale featured for the Saints

Spurs are reported to be paying a weekly £250,000 contribution to the Wales international’s £600,000 a week Madrid wage.

Bale was on a tiny fraction of that when he started his career with Southampton.

In August 2006, he was in the Saints side which played host to Preston North End at St Mary’s Stadium.

It ended in a 1-1 draw, the goals coming either side of half-time.

Grzegorz Raisak headed Southampton into a 43rd minute lead, but less than five minutes into the second half, Simon Whaley pulled PNE level with a free-kick.

This was a fifth game on the spin that North End had fallen behind in a game.

Having drawn 0-0 on the first day of the season against Sheffield Wednesday, PNE had been forced to chase against Norwich, Wolves, QPR and Port Vale.

They’d fought back to win 3-1 at Wolves, drawn against QPR but lost at Norwich and Vale in the League Cup.

These were the early weeks of Paul Simpson’s time as North End manager, having taken the reigns from Billy Davies who had left to manage Derby.

Steadily, Simpson was getting used to the job but he could have done without his side getting into the habit of conceding first.

Preston had made the long journey to the south coast on the back of the cup defeat to Port Vale, a game Simpson’s men had been very poor in.

They were much better at Southampton, more so in the second half once they had got themselves back in the game.

The Saints were the better side in the first half and the lead they took into the interval was deserved.

They opened the scoring after a shot from Bale had been pushed behind by PNE keeper Carlo Nash.

Rudi Skacel’s corner was flicked on by Andrew Surman and Poland international Raisak sent a diving header into the net.

What Simpson said to the PNE players at half-time worked, with them back on level pegging by the 50th minute.

Whaley was fouled by Chris Makin a couple of yards outside the box to earn a free-kick.

The winger picked himself up to take the free-kick himself despite having the company of Graham Alexander, who could strike a mean deadball.

Whaley’s free-kick stayed low and beat the wall, slipping through the grasp of Saints keeper Kelvin Davis and trickling over the line, David Nugent and Liam Chilvers both in close attendance to make sure it went in. There were a couple of half chances at both ends as the sides went in search of the three points.

But the draw suited PNE that bit better than the home side and went on to form part of an 11-game unbeaten run in the league.

PNE: Nash, Alexander, St Ledger, Chilvers, Wilson, Sedgwick, McKenna, Pugh, Whaley, Nugent (Neal 89), Diciho (agyemang 77). Subs (not used): Hill, McCormack, Lonergan.