George Burley has praised Gareth Bale's maturity amid all the transfer speculation surrounding the 17-year-old.

The Saints boss admitted he had to have a quiet chat with the Welsh left back last week after fearing the talk of a possible move this month was having an effect on him.

But Burley has been impressed with how Bale has handled it all.

He said: "There's no doubt that all the talk affected him for a few days last week but he seems fine now and is totally focused on trying to get the club promoted this season.

"As I have said before, Gareth is very happy and I have spoken to his parents and he is concentrated purely on this season.

"Gareth is a great asset to us and he is concentrating fully on the job. There's no doubt it's hard for him and I felt I had to have a little chat with him last week and he was a little bit worried but he seems settled and happy again now and he performed well at the weekend.

"He's got a very mature head on his shoulders."

For full story see today's Daily Echo.