IF SOMEBODY WANDERED into TheScore.ie comments section on a Thursday evening and declared Gareth Bale to be a better footballer than Cristiano Ronaldo, they’d be pegged as a none-too-subtle troll very quickly.

But it seems Jeff Stelling — he of Soccer Saturday, Countdown, and ‘Not for me, Jeff’ fame — actually believes this to be true.

In fact, it’s the headline of his latest blog for Sky Sports. After opening by warning Daniel Levy that Bale is playing “too well” at the moment, he moves on to the truly ridiculous part:

I think it’s got to the stage where you can say that Bale is better than Ronaldo because he's simply unplayable.

That's not to denigrate Ronaldo, who has got all the tricks and dynamite in his boots - but so has Bale.

What Bale's got that Ronaldo hasn't is incredible strength and power; Ronaldo is quick but when Bale gets up a head of steam, there's no stopping him.

We'd like to take this opportunity to respond to Jeff:

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