Jorge Valdano: Real Madrid Cannot Match Barcelona’s Bid For David Villa
Players
* David Villa
Real Madrid rarely concede defeat, especially to their ferocious foes Barcelona, but the club’s director-general, Jorge Valdano, has admitted that they can’t compete with the Catalans to sign David Villa from Valencia.
The Blaugrana are reportedly set to make an official €50 million offer, €40m in cash plus Martin Caceres and Bojan Krkic (on loan), a proposal that easily outmatches Los Blancos’ €25 million plus Alvaro Negredo bid.
And Valdano, a former Valencia coach, has advised his old club to take up the deal.
“If Barca are prepared to offer €50 million, including Bojan and Caceres, for Villa, I would sell if I were Valencia, because we would not be able to arrive at that figure nor are we going to push it,” he said in an interview with Onda Cero and Radio Marca.
“We have been negotiating over the past week, but there were disagreements. It was mainly about money, but later on, there was also the issue of a including a player in the deal and that was causing an inflation.
“Everything seemed to be well on track but in the end, it all went astray.”
Two other players who have been strongly linked with a move to the Bernabeu as a fall-back plan for Villa, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Diego Forlan, also look unlikely to pull on the famous white jersey next season, as Valdano dismissed rumours that he is tracking them.
He confessed, “We have two or three different alternatives, but they are not either one of those two players.”
Midfield
Things are not looking any brighter for Valdano and Madrid on the Xabi Alonso and Franck Ribery front, as the director admitted to complications in pulling off either deal.
“[Zinedine] Zidane speaks wonders of Ribery, and there was an interest at some point,” he revealed. “But that’s a difficult issue now because they [Bayern Munich] are setting astronomical figures as they have no intentions of selling him.
“As for Xabi, his club, Liverpool, have already released an official notice and it would be very difficult to see him move to Real Madrid. We made an effort to sign him a few years ago. We spoke to Real Sociedad but when I left, the interest faded away.
“And as for David Silva… I don’t know what to do with Valencia. I have read that he is intransferable.”
Defence
The main worry now for most Madrid fans is that the club have yet to make any strides to strengthen one of their weak points last season: the back line. But Valdano assured that they are very much working on it.
He said, “We are worried about some positions, but we still have two and a half months to analyse what we need and what we already have. The coach [Manuel Pellegrini] also has a say in things.
“[Ezequiel] Garay has already been signed. He will join us for the pre-season and Pellegrini will decide whether or not he stays. He is definitely an interesting player."
Finally, Valdano justified the club’s mammoth €94m bid for Cristiano Ronaldo - which followed the €68m signing of Kaka - before he went on to hit back at Barca chief Joan Laporta.
“These signings are agreed upon because the strategy of the club takes us to them,” he remarked.
“There’s no need to ask Pellegrini, ‘What do you think of Cristiano? Does he adapt to your style?’ It goes without saying. Florentino makes the coach happy with these signings.
“All this talk from Barca about imperialism and distorting the market is just in bad taste. These are really good players and I can’t be bothered talking about the economic side of things, other than to say that it will produce an incredible effect.
“The Italian and English football market seemed impoverished, so these signings are going to be suitable for all the leagues.”
KS Leong, Goal.com
