Theo Walcott and Gareth Bale have often been compared with each other, mainly because of the fact that they came from the same Southampton academy at pretty much the same time.

Walcott signed for Arsenal and has gone on to establish himself as one of the key players for the club, while Bale, after a difficult start to life with Tottenham, is now considered one of the best players in the English Premier League.

Former Spurs forward Gary Lineker believes Bale is the far superior player, adding the Welshman reminded him of Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.

"Spurs have got Bale," Lineker told Absolute Radio. "People talk about Walcott but I don't think they are quite in the same league personally.

"He could be right up there. You know he's starting to remind you a little bit of Ronaldo in the way he plays and Ronaldo made the sort of similar sort of steps towards the ability that he's now showing.

"He's phenomenally talented, he's unbelievably fast and he's strong and he strikes the ball beautifully as good as anyone around. 

"He's also good in the air, he's got all the attributes to be an absolute all-time great.

"If he can keep the consistency that he's shown certainly in 2013, if he can keep that going for a year or two, he'll be right up there amongst the best handful of players in the world."

Bale, however, has been accused, and rightly so, of going down too easily, and Lineker believes he should take a leaf out of the book of Barcelona wonder Lionel Messi.

"Messi doesn't ever dive which is another amazing attribute to him," he added. "There are one or two incidents where he's clearly thrown himself to the ground and then people look for it.

"If I were him now I'd try and eradicate that from my game."