Transfer Balls: Spurs sell Bale to Madrid and AVB stuffs his guarantee
TRANSFER Balls: Is Gareth Bale leaving Spurs for Real Madrid? Yes.
The Telegraph says Bale is on his way to Real for £85m.
Barcelona’s manager, Gerardo Martino, says the fee is “a lack of respect to the world in general”.
That’s Barcelona who tap up other team’s players and paid €60m (£51.3m) on the Brazil forward Neymar. Barcelona are not, as their self-aggrandising motto goes “more than club”. They are a club as vain as Real, shallow as Chelsea and as desperate as Manchester City. By the way, Martino earns around £7m a year.
The BBC’s Dan Roan notes:
Real Madrid have made two different offers for Wales winger Gareth Bale and are waiting to see if Tottenham Hotspur will accept either one.
The first offer is 100m euros (£86m) with structured payments over three to four years, which would surpass the world record fee Real paid Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo (£80m).
The other is an up-front, one-off payment which will be closer to £70m.
A player could also be thrown in as a makeweight in the second deal.
The Indy has a third option:
Madrid have also offered to pay Tottenham over a much shorter timescale in just two instalments but the fee would drop to £78m.
Which players. The BBC’s Phil McNulty say it’s Fabio Coentrao.
And where is Gareth Bale?
GARETH BALE showed up to Spurs’ training ground amid reports that a move to Real Madrid has been put on hold. – Daily Express, August 23
Spanish newspaper AS have published this photo of Gareth Bale which they claim was taken today at a private airport in Marbella, where the winger is said to have landed at 13:00. – ITV
The Sports Review sees the stage set:
Preparations are under way in the Santiago Bernabéu directors’ box for the unveiling of Gareth Bale, which could take place as early as Saturday, according to Spanish newspaper AS.
Although Real Madrid are yet to confirm a deal for the Wales international, the club does not want to leave anything to improvisation and already has its workers readying the stage which is usually used for player presentations.
Lastly, because this is look at the darks arts and misinformation of the football transfer season, we once again recall the words of Spurs coach Andre Villas-Boas to Portuguese newspaper O Jogo.
“The chairman said that we are not open to offers, whatever they are, and that the player will stay. In football anything can happen, but these are the guarantees given to me.”
If Spurs don’t do well post-Bale, look out for AVB revisiting that guarantee…
Posted: 24th, August 2013 | In: Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
