And around we go once more!
Real Madrid are threatening to walk away from negotiations to sign Xabi Alonso if Liverpool do not drop their £30million asking price today.
The Reds’ managing director Christian Purslow entered talks in Barcelona on Sunday demanding £30m up front for their 27-year-old with a further £4m in performance-related add-ons.
But although preliminary contacts had suggested a compromise was close, the Madrid director conducting negotiations, Jose Angel Sanchez, has only been sanctioned to offer £23m, rising to £25.5m with add-ons.
Liverpool are said to have been only prepared to lower their demands by £2m, seen by insiders at the Spanish giants as ridiculous.
Bernabeu president Florentino Perez will not deal at this level and had expected the price to fall following Alonso’s decision to hand in a transfer request.
The Spain midfielder is understood to have already agreed in principle a hefty after-tax salary of £80,000 a week on a four-year deal with Madrid.Sources in Spain suggest Alonso’s agent Inaki Ibanez is also seeking £4.25m from the deal, which provides another barrier to the deal. (Daily Mail)
OK so now this is officially stupid. I am glad that the club appears to be playing hard ball but do wonder if they won’t end up just extending the deadline in order to sell a player they seemed more than happy to cash in on last summer for a fee half of that now wanted by the club.
It had looked like a compromise was about to be reached but this now seems a million miles away and Rafa expects Alonso on the plane to Norway ahead of the club’s friendly in Oslo. God knows what will happen with this now!
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