“The Gareth Bale saga runs on with nothing new happening. The days slide by, and the situation is much the same as it was at the beginning of August: Tottenham knows full well that the player wants to leave, and that it has an historic offer on the table...but nothing doing,” Marca reported yesterday.

“The hardness of Daniel Levy in this proposed deal is driving Real Madrid and the player up the wall, as nobody can understand the dictatorial posture taken by the Spurs president. "We just don't know what to do" sources close to the player's side of the negotiation table have told Marca.

“The truth of the matter is that neither Bale nor 'Los Blancos' can do anything to get things going. The player has done all that he can by refusing to play, and Real has whacked a jaw-dropping €98 million onto the table. But Levy is having none of it, and seems set on making himself the star of the show, more newsworthy even than Bale himself.”

LOL Marca. You're so full of shi.t.

True fact.

Harsh by Marca. I hate the media, lol.

It's basically their get-out, face-saving strategy, in case the deal never happens. If Levy sticks to his guns, Perez can turn to the Madristas and say:

"oh, look, I was going to get him, but nasty Levy wanted to charge too much, and I, loving this great club as I do, decided that Real Madrid should not be overcharged, and that makes me wonderful and proves how much I am committed to what is best for Real Madrid, and you should want me as your president another time when the elections come around!"

It could never be about Tottenham simply not wanting to sell their star player, and Real Madrid not having the money to pay the asking price, could it? (hint: Madrid still owes us money for Modric -- they can't even get a loan from the Spanish banks for the Bale deal).

Marca are simply towing the line that Perez wants them to tow. That is: it's all mean ol' Tottenham's fault that we can't deliver you a blockbuster signing to match Neymar. Booo Tottenham. Boooooo.

Pathetic.

Er.. so why is it surprising, isnt it well established that Marca are a Real mouthpiece, what else were you expecting.

^^ Just showcasing. It's pretty disgusting that they get to continue doing this, and get away with it.

BTW Cadena is reporting Bale to Madrid is done for ~85 million pounds. Will be announced on Friday because of some festivities in Madrid. Cadena are reasonably reliable. They broke the Thiago, Isco, Diego Lopez stories first.

http://www.cope.es/detalle/El-Madrid-ficha-a-Bale.html

If spurs sign Lamela, along with the other signings, they wouldnt miss him much.

The figures dance around. Most other sources are quoting 94m instead. AVB was also quoted, this morning, as saying that no deal had been made, so....

I'm just waiting for something official, after all the nonsense that has been written. If it happens, so be it, and as you say, if we get Lamela, we'll have a hell of a replacement.

I think the 94 million being floated around is on account of some places reporting Coentrao is being used as makeweight in the deal and him being valued at ~ 9 million. Though that would leave Madrid with just one senior left back (Marcelo)

Everything I've seen suggested 94m PLUS Coentrao.

This is why I'm waiting for something official; once again, no-one seems to actually know anything. ;)

I guess this will give us a good idea of which newspaper is better informed.

Absolutely disgusting. This will throw off our entire Spanish youth style system with Isco, Jese, and Morata all having little to no playing time. Then di Maria will be benched or sold. Ozil will end up having his minutes criminally cut and forced to compete with Isco. Kaka will have no more playing time. Our entire system will be overthrown. And Madrid are gonna suffer severe financial losses if this Bale transfer doesn't turn out well.

Arsenal might benefit from this, reports are they have inquired for Benzema and Di Maria. There would be a good chance of Di Maria leaving but Benzema would be a no go, unless Madrid go for Suarez.

@Fred & Dynast:

See, I totally agree. This isn't even really a good move for Madrid, either. It'll plunge them into a fair bit of debt, just to get a player they don't need, displace players who have earned their chance, force other players to leave...

... it seems this is more about Perez and his lust, than anything good for the club.

Which is another reason why I am still, despite the daily barrage of cheap internet blogs parroting the same junk from Marca and Guillem Balague (he's the actual source of this Friday rumour -- a position he backed into after previously saying it would be completed in a matter of hours, yesterday), still skeptical about this actually happening.

We shall see, I guess. But I'm waiting for official sources before I start singing sad songs of goodbye.

<http://sportwitness.ning.com/forum/topics/image-real-madrid-start-advertising-bale-shirts-on-their-official>

Either this was a cheeky move by some enterprising hacker (looking at you, Gooners... (j/k)), or a spectacularly classless move by the club.

Either way, we have 11 days left for this carnival...

Heheh.