adminMADRID ― Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has cast doubt on the world record transfer of Gareth Bale by insisting that the price tag of £85million is too much to pay for Tottenham’s star winger. After a meeting with Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, an infamously stubborn negotiator, in Miami, Perez told ESPN: “To pay 100million euros (£85m) for Gareth Bale seems a lot to me.”
Madrid were believed to be ready to smash the world record transfer fee they paid for Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009 by securing a deal for the Welsh star this summer.
But the latest from Perez throws into doubt a deal which had looked increasingly certain to come to a conclusion last week.
By all accounts, Bale is desperate to move to the Spanish capital before the transfer window closes, despite signing a new bumper contract with Spurs last summer.
Tottenham are trying to push Madrid for as much cash as possible, with Levy believed to want £105m for last season’s PFA Player and Young Player of the Year.
Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti has refused to talk about attempts to sign Bale after irking Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas by declaring in a press conference last week his side were ‘negotiating and trying to find a solution to the situation’ with regards to the player.
“I won’t speak about Bale, because I have already angered him (Villas-Boas) and I don’t want to anger another coach,” the Madrid boss said. “I didn’t say anything in particular and I prefer not to talk about this.”
The crunch talks come after Spurs director Sir Keith Mills admitted the club cannot stop Bale leaving.
Mills told the Evening Standard: “If a player is desperate to leave, it’s very difficult to force him to stay. We’ve seen it in other clubs. Even if he has a contract, you can’t force somebody to play for you.’
Spurs reacted to uproar over the club changing the picture on their official Twitter profile, removing a photo of Bale.
The picture also contained Clint Dempsey, who has left White Hart Lane for the Seattle Sounders, and has been replaced with an image of Mousa Dembele and Aaron Lennon.
The club then scotched the idea the change meant anything, tweeting: “Changing our Twitter background seems to have created a bit of a frenzy.
With Clint leaving the Club, it was time for an image change. Gareth was on that background too. Did anyone notice? We change our social media backgrounds regularly and feature all players.”
They followed this on Wednesday morning by posting: “We might change our Twitter background image again — hope nobody reads too much into it. ― Mailonline.
Online Reporter