RONALDO SAGA KEEPS UP ITS HEAD OF STEAM
Sunday, July 6th, 2008 by Stuart Stratford
Rivalling the tedium produced by Emmanuel Adebayor’s protracted entanglement with Barcelona is Real Madrid’s pursuit of Cristiano Ronaldo. This week has seen more conjecture on his future, produced by the fact that he has not returned to Manchester for pre-season training. That he was not supposed to, his summer prolonged due to Euro2008 is a minor inconvenience.
With surgery on his foot - an injury that has moved from his toe to his ankle in the space of a week - scheduled to take place, the rumour mill will continue apace. Marca has fuelled the fire further by reporting that Real will this week table a formal bid of €87.5m, some €12.5m short of the target that United are believed by the English media to desire.
Marca is one of two notionally independent media outlets used by Real to unsettle players with constant speculation. The ideal scenario for the Spanish champions is that Ronaldo submits a written transfer request, a course of action that is unlikely to be followed as it would negate and signing-on fees owed from his contract renegotiation last season with United.
It means that Real will be forced to pay through the nose for the player, perhaps double his true value, in much the same way that Barcelona are being held hostage by Arsenal for Adebayor. The Catalans are perhaps in more urgent need of buying Adebayor with President Joan Laporta needing 65% of the vote to go in his favour in this weekend’s ‘Motion of No Confidence’ to survive; A big-money signing might well swing some more votes in his favour.
In both cases, the close of transfer window on August 31st is the only way speculation will end if neither has signed for either of the Primera Division clubs by then. Even so, the respite for the supporters of Arsenal and Manchester United will be brief; it is four short months until the window re-opens in January 2009.
Tags: Arsenal, Cristiano Ronaldo, Emmanuel Adebayor, FC Barcelona, Football, La Liga, Manchester United, premier league, Real Madrid, Soccer
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