Gareth Bale latest: Levy stands firm, Welshman wants out
The flying Welshman has his heart set on a move to the Spanish capital this summer, but Daniel Levy is determined not to yield to pressure to sell his star man.
Tottenham insists there has been no official bid. Chairman Daniel Levy is adamant that he will not sell. And yet Gareth Bale, meanwhile, has told the club that he is desperate to complete a summer transfer to Real Madrid.
The Spanish giants’ concerted, potentially record-breaking pursuit of the Welsh flyer is reaching tipping point. Real have clearly turned Bale’s head, with the Welshman telling Levy of his intention to move to the Santiago Bernabeu during a conversation in Hong Kong at the Asia Trophy last week.
Levy told Bale then that he will not be sold this summer, a position he maintains privately as the pressure ramps up. The Spurs chief is a notoriously tough negotiator at the best of times, but on this issue more than any before his heels are well and truly dug in.
Senior Spurs sources insisted as late as Sunday night that no official, written bid has been lodged for Bale, but Real’s determination to sign the player is in no doubt.
The suspicion in the White Hart Lane offices is that a bid of even £90 million could be on its way. And there is a growing feeling, too, that an offer of that magnitude could be enough to force even Levy to accept.
Still, Bale who landed in London on Monday with the rest of the Spurs squad – is expected to re-iterate his desire to leave the club in meetings this week.
Levy, whose hardline stance is being backed by billionaire owner Joe Lewis, looks increasingly likely to be forced into making a decision between his personal pride and business sense.
In 2011, the ambitious chairman held firm when Luka Modric tried to force through a move to Chelsea, and Levy wants to shake off his reputation for selling the club’s best players as he attempts to turn Spurs into a European powerhouse in their own right.
Levy also made a promise to his manager, Andre Villas-Boas that Bale would stay at the club for at least one more season as they target a top-four finish next term.
It was one of the reasons Villas-Boas turned down an approach from Paris Saint-Germain earlier this summer, with the Portuguese maintaining a very strong relationship with his star man after Bale scored 31 goals in all competitions last season.
Real Madrid have told Bale it’s ‘now or never’ for him for move to the Spanish capital, hence his change in attitude in recent days having previously suggested he would be happy to stay at White Hart Lane for another season.
And for all the talk of player power, Tottenham have power and a buffer of their own with three years remaining on the contract Bale signed only last summer.
While Bale is unlikely to kick up a fuss – and suggestions that he exaggerated a glut muscle injury during the Asia Trophy have been fiercely denied – there is a massive danger in keeping an unhappy player.
Tottenham are banking on the 24-year-old’s relationship with Villas-Boas, his settled family life and unassuming nature and do not expect the attacker to cause a fuss in the same manner as Modric or Dimitar Berbatov when they forced big-money transfers.
Few could blame Bale for wanting to pursue his ‘dream’ of playing for Real Madrid, where he believes he can fulfill his potential and finish his career with a trophy haul worthy of one of the finest players on the planet.
After six years in north London, he feels the time is right to move on, having won both the PFA and FWA player of the year awards as Spurs failed to qualify for the Champions League last season.
And for Tottenham, a bid approaching £90m – smashing the world record £80m Real paid for Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009 – might just be too much to turn down for a club looking to finance the construction of a £400m stadium development.
Villas-Boas is also a big fan of Real left-back Fabio Coentrao, who along with Angel Di Maria has been suggested as a potential makeweight in any deal for Bale.
Tottenham sources insist the days domestic rivals such as Manchester United, as they did with Berbatov in 2008, could skim super stars from their grasp are ‘long gone’ – and Bale would only ever be sold overseas, in the same manner that Modric was denied a transfer to Chelsea before joining Real Madrid.
That is, of course, if Levy caves at all.
At the moment, the Tottenham chairman is focused on trying to agree a new contract with Bale worth more than £150,000-a-week to keep him at the club for at least another year an offer that Bale’s representatives have little interest in discussing with the player’s heart set on a move to Real.
It is a situation that threatens to turn ugly as the goodwill between Bale and his representatives and the Tottenham hierarchy dissipates.
This is a battle Levy has taken on with his players before – and won. But there is now no perfect scenario for any party and Bale seems certain to end up in Real Madrid colours.
What is still not clear, with just over a month until the close of the window, is whether that will be this summer, or whether the Welsh flyer will be
Anambra All-stars Emerge Champions Of South-East
Anambra All-Stars Football Club based in Onitsha on Saturday July 27 emerged the 2013 champions of the South-East All-Stars football challenge decided at Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri.
The one day mini-championship was used to determine the team that will go on to represent the zone at the National All-Stars Football Competition which will take place in Abuja later this year.
The veterans from Onitsha, the commercial nerve center of the Eastern part of Nigeria piped three times champions Enugu 1 0 in the final played at about 5pm to qualify for the main event in Abuja.
In the first match of the day which kicked-off at about 12noon saw host State Imo lose 7 8 on penalties to eventual champions Anambara which meant that the star studded side with the likes of Law Ukaegbu, Mike Obi, Ramson Madu, Monday Ibekwe, Ray Ebede and Sir Felix Kigigha were eliminated from the context early enough.
It was then the turn of Abia and Enugu to take to the field which brought to mind the recent oriental derby between Rangers and Enyimba in this season’s NPFL week 21 games in Aba. After about 80 minutes of hostilities and the score line stood at 2 2 the game was once again taking to penalty shootout were Enugu ran out with 6 5 victory to advance to the final.
The three match championship presented a good opportunity for the fans that defied the weekend rain and turn out at the Dan Anyiam to savor the kind of rivalry that characterized the nation’s league during the 80’s and early 90’s. With players like Uwakwe Eke, Ben Agada(Surugede), Jude Agada, Ojoto, Oporocha, Emeka Obi, Jerry Uche, Sunday Ikpeazu and Obiora Victor the bodies might be tired but certainly the ideas was in exhibition to the admiration of the fans.
The arena was later graced by the arrival of a living legend Ambassador Kanu Papilo Nwankwor who stormed the Stadium alongside his brother Ogbonna Kanu but their ambition of lacing their boots for Imo All-Stars was dashed by their elimination.
Athletics – Bolt agrees to Farah showdown
Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt has accepted a challenge from Britain’s Olympic middle distance champion Mo Farah to race for charity, saying he would be prepared to meet over 600 metres.
Farah, who won gold at the 5,000 and 10,000 metres at the London Olympics last year was the star turn of the Games along with Jamaican sprinter Bolt, who won the 100 and 200 metres.
“It would be great to do a distance where people vote in – proper athletics fans – on what distance they think is most suitable,” Farah told Sky Sports.
He then turned to the camera and said: “Are you up for that? Come on, you’ve got to do it.”
In a separate interview, Bolt was shown the footage and replied he would be prepared to take on the challenge.
“That sounds fun,” he said.
“It’s going to be hard but it’s charity so it’s all about fun and enjoyment.
“I’m up for anything, for anything’s possible.”
Bolt, who holds the world records at 100m and 200m, said running 1,500m would be out of the question.
“It’s way too far,” he said. “600 for sure I can try because I’ve done 600 metres in training, but not 1,500 metres.”
Farah, the Somalia-born 30-year-old who grew up in London, has lightning pace over the final stretch and has recently experimented with shorter distances, setting a European 1500m record of 3:28.81 this summer.
Farah laid down the challenge to the Jamaican sprinter after running a personal best of 7 minutes 36.85 seconds in the 3000 metres at the London Anniversary Games at the weekend.
One intriguing aspect of the race would be how the taller, more powerful Bolt would cope with the early stages of the longer distance and if he would have the acceleration to match Farah’s finish after running 500 metres.
GERMAN SUPER-CUP
B/Dortmund 4 2 B/Munich
HOLLAND SUPER-UP (27/7/13)
AZ Alkmar 2 3 Ajax
RUSSIAN PREMIER LEAGUE
D Moscow 1 4 S Moscow
FK Rostov 3 0 Tomsk
SOME CLUB FRIENDLY RESULTS
PSG 0 1 R Madrid
AC Milan 2 1 Valencia
Valerenga 0 7 Barcelona
Man City 1 0 Sunderland
Blackburn 1 3 Everton
CHAN QUALIFIERS
27/7/13
CIV 2 0 Nigeria
Rwanda 5 pen 6 Ethiopia
Niger Rep 5 pen 6 B/Faso
Uganda 3 1 Tanzania
Botswana 1 -1 Zambia
28/7/13
Guinea 1 — 0 Mali
Cameroon 1 — 0 Gabon
Congo pp DR Congo
Sudan pp Burundi
Mauritius 0 –3 Zimbabwe
Mozambique 3 –0 Namibia
MOCH CHAMPIONS-LEAGUE RESULT
Barcelona 3 1 Man United
ALL-STARS CHALLENGE ZOAL GAMES
Imo 7 pen 8 Anambra
Enugu 7 pen 6 Abia
FINAL
Anambra 1 0 Enugu
FED CUP ¼ FINAL GAMES (31/7/13)
Heartland — Akwa Utd @ Kaduna
Kano Pillars — W. Wolves @ Ilorin
Lobi Stars — Akwa Starlets @ Enugu
Nasarawa Utd — Enyimba @
