Spurs Transfer News: Gareth Bale Move Now In Doubt?

by Joseph Dempsey

ESPN. Bale had been widely expected to put to an end one of this summer's most protracted transfer sagas by joining Madrid in the coming weeks, but that move now appears uncertain. Spurs are demanding a world-record fee for the 24-year-old, and have told the La Liga club that they will not sell for less than £100 million. Madrid meanwhile have so far failed to raise their opening offer of £85 million plus either Fabio Coentrao or Angel Di Maria. Talking with ESPN Deportes TV, Perez admitted for the first time that paying such an astronomical fee for the double PFA Player of the Year would be over the odds.

"We talk with lots of people and we will see what happens in all our negotiations, with this player and with others," Perez said. "We do not usually talk about other players out of respect to the player, the club and the president, with whom I made a good friendship last season during the signing of Luka Modric. "If I do not talk about names, I do not talk about money. ‚100 million seems a lot to me, a lot for everything. I do not talk about players nor money because I should not and cannot, out of respect."
Tottenham's valuation of Bale would force Real into breaking the world-record-transfer-fee they themselves set when they paid Manchester United £80 million for Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009. And Perez also denied a recent story in Spanish tabloid Marca that Ronaldo had already agreed a new contract at the Bernabeu, but that he expected the forward to eventually pen a renewal and stay at Real for the remainder of his career. United had been interested in re-signing the Portuguese superstar, but Perez said: "We are all convinced that he is going to finish his sporting life at Real Madrid. "At the end of the summer we will try and sort out this subject. I believe this will happen, for sure, before the end of the month, or at the start of next month. We do not have such a great hurry, when there are good intentions. We will resolve it satisfactorily. At least that is my desire."

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Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.