The flying Welshman has his heart set on a move to
the Spanish capital this summer, but Daniel Levy is determined not to
yield to pressure to sell his star man
Tottenham insist there has been no official bid. Chairman Daniel Levy is adamant that he will not sell. And yet
Gareth Bale, meanwhile, has told the club that he is desperate to complete a summer transfer to
Real Madrid.
The Spanish giants' concerted, potentially record-breaking pursuit of the Welsh flyer is reaching tipping point.
Real
have clearly turned Bale’s head, with the Welshman telling Levy of his
intention to move to the Santiago Bernabeu during a conversation in Hong
Kong at the Asia Trophy last week.
Levy told Bale then that he will not be sold this summer, a position he
maintains privately as the pressure ramps up. The Spurs chief is a
notoriously tough negotiator at the best of times, but on this issue
more than any before his heels are well and truly dug in.
Senior
Spurs sources insisted as late as Sunday night that no official, written
bid has been lodged for Bale, but Real's determination to sign the
player is in no doubt.
The suspicion in the White Hart Lane
offices is that a bid of even £90 million could be on its way. And there
is a growing feeling, too, that an offer of that magnitude could be
enough to force even Levy to accept.
Still, Bale – who landed in
London on Monday with the rest of the Spurs squad - is expected to
re-iterate his desire to leave the club in meetings this week.
Levy,
whose hardline stance is being backed by billionaire owner Joe Lewis,
looks increasingly likely to be forced into making a decision between
his personal pride and business sense.
In 2011, the ambitious
chairman held firm when Luka Modric tried to force through a move to
Chelsea, and Levy wants to shake off his reputation for selling the
club’s best players as he attempts to turn Spurs into a European
powerhouse in their own right.
Levy also made a promise to his
manager, Andre Villas-Boas, that Bale would stay at the club for at
least one more season as they target a top-four finish next term.
It
was one of the reasons Villas-Boas turned down an approach from Paris
Saint-Germain earlier this summer, with the Portuguese maintaining a
very strong relationship with his star man after Bale scored 31 goals in
all competitions last season.
Real Madrid have told Bale it’s
‘now or never’ for him for move to the Spanish capital, hence his change
in attitude in recent days having previously suggested he would be
happy to stay at White Hart Lane for another season.
And for all
the talk of player power, Tottenham have power and a buffer of their own
with three years remaining on the contract Bale signed only last
summer.
While Bale is unlikely to kick up a fuss - and
suggestions that he exaggerated a glute muscle injury during the Asia
Trophy have been fiercely denied - there is a massive danger in keeping
an unhappy player.
Tottenham are banking on the 24-year-old’s
relationship with Villas-Boas, his settled family life and unassuming
nature and do not expect the attacker to cause a fuss in the same manner
as Modric or Dimitar Berbatov when they forced big-money transfers.
Few
could blame Bale for wanting to pursue his ‘dream’ of playing for Real
Madrid, where he believes he can fulfill his potential and finish his
career with a trophy haul worthy of one of the finest players on the
planet.
After six years in north London, he feels the time is
right to move on, having won both the PFA and FWA player of the year
awards as Spurs failed to qualify for the Champions League last season.
And
for Tottenham, a bid approaching £90m - smashing the world record £80m
Real paid for Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009 - might just be too much to turn
down for a club looking to finance the construction of a £400m stadium
development.
Villas-Boas is also a big fan of Real left-back
Fabio Coentrao, who along with Angel Di Maria has been suggested as a
potential makeweight in any deal for Bale.
Tottenham sources
insist the days domestic rivals such as Manchester United, as they did
with Berbatov in 2008, could skim super stars from their grasp are ‘long
gone’ - and Bale would only ever be sold overseas, in the same manner
that Modric was denied a transfer to Chelsea before joining Real Madrid.
That is, of course, if Levy caves at all.
At
the moment, the Tottenham chairman is focused on trying to agree a new
contract with Bale worth more than £150,000-a-week to keep him at the
club for at least another year – an offer that Bale’s representatives
have little interest in discussing with the player's heart set on a move
to Real.
It is a situation that threatens to turn ugly as the
goodwill between Bale and his representatives and the Tottenham
hierarchy dissipates.
This is a battle Levy has taken on with his
players before - and won. But there is now no perfect scenario for any
party and Bale seems certain to end up in Real Madrid colours.
What
is still not clear, with just over a month until the the close of the
window, is whether that will be this summer, or whether the Welsh flyer
will be made to wait another year.
Backing
a United win is practically impossible at the odds quoted, and even
investing in them in the half-time/full-time market does not appeal at 
