There is a moment, as Gareth Bale leans against the wall and the photographer zooms in, that it becomes clear the most formidable left-sided player in the Premier League does have one small vulnerability. "Spiders," he explains. "They terrify me." He has seen a cobweb, too close for comfort, and there is a look of horror that feels a long way from the calm, supremely gifted athlete we are used to seeing on the football pitch.

He has been good company and though the wall has to be swept clean on his behalf, nobody could ever categorise Bale as one of football's divas. He might be one of the A-listers these days, but he also comes across as remarkably grounded considering the rare qualities – the running power, the ability to sprint full-pelt with the ball under control, and that firecracker of a left foot – that make him such a formidable asset for Tottenham Hotspur, coveted by all the top European clubs.

Playing abroad does appeal: "I'd never be scared of it. It's something I'd like to experience. It's in the future but if something did come up I would obviously look at it with interest." Yet Bale can say that now without fear of it being misconstrued given that he signed a new four-year contract at the end of June. Indeed, the firm impression, from an afternoon in his company, is of someone who is perfectly happy at White Hart Lane, buying into the long-term strategy of the chairman, Daniel Levy, and convinced the new-look Spurs can flourish if they are afforded a little patience.

Bale's new deal certainly represents a huge declaration of faith bearing in mind the club did not even have a manager in place at the time, coming in that three-week period between Harry Redknapp's sacking and the appointment of André Villas-Boas.

Did he ever consider leaving? "No," Bale replies matter-of-factly. "The manager situation wasn't really my worry either. It was more a case of whether the club wanted to go forward and be ambitious. I spoke to the chairman – he talked to me privately – and he told me about his plans and what he wanted to bring to Tottenham. It was exciting. We're going in the right direction. We've made some great signings. We've got a new training ground, we're planning a new stadium. It's all looking bright."

His early impressions of Villas-Boas are positive. "He's very approachable. If there is a problem, or something we feel is not right, his door is open. He wants us to work that way: together, the players and staff, and if there is a problem we can always share our ideas with him and he will take it on board.

"For example, if we feel we are working too hard in training, if we say that to him, then he'll ease it off. He's still learning as well as a manager but he does all the coaching and everything himself, which is great. Every manager is different and he has his own ways of working. Sometimes it just takes a little bit of time."

It has, after all, been a summer of considerable upheaval at White Hart Lane and it cannot have been easy, for example, when a player with Luka Modric's influence and talent is lost. Rafael van der Vaart, too.

Spurs began the season with only one senior striker, Jermain Defoe, and did not win any of their first three league games. The scrutiny on Villas-Boas has been intense at times – too much so, for Bale's liking.

"It's crazy, to be honest," he says when asked whether football can be too impatient sometimes. "There seems to be this thing in football where everything has to be ... now! But look at the amount of changes we have had. Everything. The new manager coming in, a new training ground, a new formation, new players, getting used to different types of training. It does take time to adapt."

Bale has seen "progression in every game" ahead of Saturday's match at Manchester United. Spurs head to Old Trafford after back-to-back league wins over Reading and QPR and Bale is encouraged by the early impact of the new signings, in particular Mousa Dembélé: "Everybody saw what Mousa can do at Fulham. He's a great signing, a great player, he's proved it at Fulham and can do even better at Tottenham. Dembélé playing in central midfield instead of Modric … I think he's capable of filling Luka's boots and more, to be honest."

Bale was moved to left-back against QPR last week in the absence of the injured Benoît Assou-Ekotto – but only briefly. Tottenham, to put it bluntly, missed him too much in attack and Villas-Boas changed things back at half-time, turning a 1‑0 deficit into a 2‑1 win.

The new manager is operating a 4‑2‑3‑1 formation that includes a modified role for his most penetrative player. "It's a new formation," Bale explains. "I'm still on the left, attacking, but I have a bit more freedom now to come inside and mix my game up. Instead of being in just one section the idea is to confuse defences, make space, try to cause some different problems. It's one of the things we've been working on since pre-season.

"A lot of old-fashioned wingers will just be stuck out on the wing and these days the other team stick a full-back on you, the winger drops back and one of the central midfielders comes over. Once people find out what you're good at on the wing, they try to stop you. In some games I've faced two right-backs: one playing right-back and one right-wing. They double up. It's hard to get the ball, hard to get the space and you can be marked out of the game.

"The idea now is that if I mix my game up, come inside, they can't all follow you as they have to stay in shape. It gives me a bit more freedom and a bit more licence to get on the ball and do damage in other parts of the field. If you've got a plan B, they're not expecting it and the right-back can't follow you to the left-back spot."

This comes a few minutes after Bale states that the opponent who tends to give him his hardest game is the one, curiously enough, Roy Hodgson and previously Fabio Capello do not rate highly enough to play for England. "Micah Richards … I always have a tough battle with him when we play Manchester City. I'm massively surprised he can't get in the England team. He's strong, quick, bombing up and down the line, causing all sorts of problems."

A similar description could be applied to Bale, one of the players who features prominently in Sir Alex Ferguson's list of those-who-got-away.

United, Bale recollects, were "definitely interested" before Spurs snapped up the then 17-year-old from Southampton for what now looks like a steal, an initial £5m rising to £10m.

Five years on, Bale has changed his shirt from No3 to No11 this season, symbolising his preferred role in the team, and seems determined to show it is possible to be both a superstar and still grounded enough to consider himself "a normal lad" with no intention of his "head blowing up". This is not someone who will ever be snapped falling out of a nightclub.

Bale doesn't drink for a start. A relative gave him a glass of champagne one year and he just didn't like the taste. Away from football, he explains, he tends not to mix with celebrities and London's glitterati but his old mates from Whitchurch high school in Cardiff, where he was timed as a 13-year-old running 100m at 13.4sec and where he was so freakishly good at football the PE teachers tried to make it fair on everyone else by banning him from using his left foot.

This interview is also his chance to clear up what happened in the summer when he missed the Olympics because of a back injury but was fit enough to play for Tottenham, on their pre-season tour of the United States, at the same time.

"For me, it was simple," Bale says. "I had a problem with my back. I knew I was in the mix for the Olympics squad so I was trying to get myself fit but when I was running, my back was still sore. I spoke to the Olympics medical team, went for a scan, and it showed a problem.

"I just wasn't expecting to recover that quickly. The rehab went very well. I played just as the Olympics was starting and it obviously created a bit of a stir but, for me, I didn't do anything wrong. It was all dealt with professionally and the fact is I never actually pulled out – it was a decision made by both medical teams.

"It was a bit of a coincidence that I came back at pretty much the same time but people really blew it out of proportion. I knew the truth and they, the Olympics team, knew the real truth."

Remembering the controversy, the mind also goes back to the injury Bale suffered on tour, this time inflicted by Charlie Adam, then of Liverpool. The same player also injured Bale last season and while there is no appetite to prolong the argument, the recipient of Adam's studs does point out that he has never received an apology. "Not the second time, or the first. He doesn't like me very much, I don't know why."

All of which feels a long way from the playground at Worcesters primary school in Enfield as a £50m-rated player takes a group of enthusiastic year-three pupils through their paces. Bale is here as part of the considerable community work Tottenham put in behind the scenes in Enfield and other areas of north London. Footballer, role model, spokesman.

"People tend to laugh when you talk about Tottenham winning the league but at the same time there were people talking about it genuinely last season," he says. "That itself is a step in the right direction. We were up there, three points off the lead until we hit a bad patch. I'm ambitious, I want to play in the Champions League and that's the aim with Tottenham – to start qualifying for the Champions League on a consistent basis." Real Madrid, Milan, Barcelona – anyone else for that matter — can wait.

Gareth Bale was speaking at an appearance at Worcesters Pprimary Scschool in support of Tottenham Hotspur Foundation's work in Enfield.