The elephant in the room

[Jamturk]

I know this may not be popular and unpalatable, but with a new contract not signed, Levy chucking money around early and murmurings of prices being quoted to 2 clubs. Is it the case we are spending the Bale money?

 

[Rocksuperstar]

I massively doubt it - as with all the other concerns for Bales future; he's currently pulling faces over Times Square, he's in all the clubs merchandise, and is under contract for many years. United, whilst reasonably flush, i don't think can afford to chuck more than £40m at anyone right now and, even if they did, i doubt we'd accept it.

New contract, old contract, it doesn't matter. His current one is long enough and the prices that we hear may have been quoted to other clubs will be an insane number, probably £80m or something ridiculous like that.

I'd not worry about it.

 

[absolute bobbins]

I know this may not be popular and unpalatable, but with a new contract not signed, Levy chucking money around early and murmurings of prices being quoted to 2 clubs. Is it the case we are spending the Bale money?

No.

Although the Marca leader was very funny this morning

 

[onthetwo]

I know this may not be popular and unpalatable, but with a new contract not signed, Levy chucking money around early and murmurings of prices being quoted to 2 clubs. Is it the case we are spending the Bale money?

i think its a smart strategy, we're effectvely spending the money we'll get for him IF we dont get CL next year and he leaves. So i think the answer is 'Yes' with a `Goat' caveat!

 

[thinktank]

There's no way bale won't be here. Bale has committed to HP/EA/Under Armour with his image all over their shit everywhere, so in strict business terms this is a prime indicator that he's not going anywhere. There's no way Levy would let his image appear on these brands if he thought there was any chance at all of selling him.

Would be business suicide and create future issues/uncertainty with sponsors about our business ethics.

Not gonna happen.

 

[Riandor]

No.

Although the Marca leader was very funny this morning

What, the Operation Bale article they have on their website? It's total rubbish isn't it!! it just says he was identified as top target and DL said no and that Real Madrid might have put a bid in (which triggered the no response). It says nothing more. It's totally stupid.

 

[Geyzer Soze]

What is 'Goat'??

 

[$hoguN]

There was me thinking this thread was going to be about Adele

 

[Main Man]

To flame this fire even further...

Where was he when the squad landed in Hong Kong?

He was in none of the pictures on the official website.

 

[$hoguN]

To flame this fire even further...

Where was he when the squad landed in Hong Kong?

He was in none of the pictures on the official website.

But in all the videos....

 

[JimmyG2]

Parachuted out directly into the Hong Kong stadium
for photo opportunity prior to landing.
Exclusive pictures to follow.

 

[Kendall]

To flame this fire even further...

Where was he when the squad landed in Hong Kong?

He was in none of the pictures on the official website.

Wouldn't come to yours for a bbq pal, it'd be salad or e coli.

 

[raf18]

Daily Star popping up on newsnow with their bullshit is getting annoying. I'm not clicking - just seeing the headlines. They posted a headline yesterday about a 100m pound bid, then realised it was euros and posted 85m shortly after. Now they've got "Gareth Bale agrees a six-year deal with Real Madrid" which I thought was a new contract for a second, and also "STUNNING CLAIM: Gareth Bale wants to leave Spurs". Piss off please

 

[parklane1]

He will be here.

 

[Kendall]

1. Spanish paper Marca claim a deal to take Tottenham winger Gareth Bale to Real Madrid is done.
2. According to the Daily Mail, Marca say that Real are closing in on a six year deal for Bale worth £8.5m a year.
3. Marca also claim that Bale has told Spurs chiefs that he wants to go to the Bernabeu.

 

[myhartlane]

"€80-85 million plus Fabio Coentrao" according to Marca

Frankly, Levy would be doing the Club a disservice if he didn't consider it.

 

[Kendall]

"€80-85 million plus Fabio Coentrao" according to Marca

Frankly, Levy would be doing the Club a disservice if he didn't consider it.

I agree with you, but Levy should be agreeing to it and just working out a structure like:

We get Coentrao and £20m now, then next year we deliver Bale for the remaining £60m.

 

[Booney]

What is 'Goat'??

He's standing in the room next to the elephant keeping him company.

 

[Booney]

I actually don't think he'll go this season but if and when he does it would certainly be incomprehensible that we wouldn't have put together an 'exit strategy'. This is likely to involve getting a replacement in early and doing all our spending before he goes anywhere so that selling clubs cant massively inflate their prices. A relatively 'big name' will also be needed to keep the fans and sponsors happy. We'll also aim to stoke up some kind of bidding war by generating interest from the other oil-rich clubs.

I think that there probably is something in the theory that we're 'spending the Bale money' now but that we dont plan recouping it for another season or so.

 

[Chris Flynn]

Considering the money that we have got in and not spent over the last few years, the new sponser deals, the new premier TV deal, the 'rumor' that billionaire Joe Lewis has sanctioned some spending (for the first time) and the fact always have some money to spend, No, i don't think the fact we have spent £23 million (half of what we got for VDV and Mods) means we need to sell Bale. FFS