No, Real Madrid won’t be giving Tottenham, at the moment, the £40 million they want for Luka Modric. Still, they’re willing to up the ante regarding their chase for the Croatian midfielder and pay a reported £33 million for the player.
Real Madrid have been trying to work out a deal involving less money and adding a player into the mix, someone unsettled like Nuri Sahin, who has also been linked to Arsenal and Arsene Wenger, who has vigorously denied the reports, which easily makes it sound much more real.
Sahin played in only 4 league matches for Real Madrid, suffering from the famous combination of an early injury after arriving at a new club and a head coach that doesn’t appreciate you enough. Daniel Levy, Tottenham’s chairman, said he isn’t willing to accept any cash+player deal for the player, saying he isn’t willing to accept anything below £35 million.
Modric himself is making it pretty clear where he wants to play. Anywhere but Tottenham, for a second straight summer. Last year it was Chelsea who attracted his attention, causing Modric to try and do anything possible and get his club to accept an offer, even missing the first two matches of the Premier League season before finally getting convinced that there isn’t going to be any magical bid whisking him away from North London to the Western part of it.
This summer? More of the same. Modric deliberately missed the plane that took the team to their pre-season tour of America and earlier training with his teammates, which has led to a huge falling out with the club and the new manager Andre Villas-Boas, eventually getting Modric fined for £100,000. Later, Luka Modric apologized for his action, which doesn’t change the fact that he wants to leave.
And what’s so wrong with staying at Tottenham, a club that hasn’t succeeded in making the leap to being a constant Champions League member, but is doing everything possible to reach that goal. Still, the lure of a club like Real Madrid, with all of its Champions League titles and being the recent Spanish champions is always going to be bigger and stronger than the one Spurs have to offer.