Spanish outlet AS – known for their leanings towards Real Madrid – claim that Manchester United are preparing a ‘final’ offer of £41.9m (60m Euros) for defender Sergio Ramos.
They report that United’s bid would make Ramos the most expensive defender of all time and that kind of fee might be enough to convince Real Madrid to sell. Crucially, their information is that despite the public display of solidarity, the relationship between Florentino Perez and Ramos is at an all time low.
AS report:
Manchester United are willing to increase their offer for Sergio Ramos after Real Madrid refused to even contemplate selling the defender for United’s opening bid of €45 million. “For less than €90 million we won’t talk” was the response from the Bernabéu.
The Premier League club is now set to return with a higher offer. It is believed to be €60 million and United will go no higher than that. At Madrid they are confident that if they listen to offers, as requested by Ramos, the player will relax his salary demands to stay in the Spanish capital. However, neither the warm embrace between Ramos and Florentino Pérez, as well as the president’s words at Casillas’ farewell press conference (“there are players that the club does not want to leave and are not going to…”) have changed the player’s position. Ramos remains firm in his intention to end his time at Madrid and continues to look at United as his destination. While Pérez has refused to meet his salary demands (an increase from €6 milllion per season to €10 million), the English club will offer €55 million over five seasons. That would see him almost equal the salary of United captain Wayne Rooney.
New route. In one way or another, United want to put an end to the saga as soon as possible so have decided to take the sale of David de Gea out of the equation. Therefore, in the coming days the Premier League club are expected to launch their final offer of €60 million to make Ramos the most expensive defender in the history of the game. The deal would exceed that of David Luiz last summer when the Brazilian joined PSG for €50 million from Chelsea.
There are some reports that being named captain would go some way to smoothing the path for Ramos to stay.
However, the captaincy is not passed on in the conventional way at Madrid, as we explained on our Twitter account yesterday. It is simply a matter of seniority and perhaps it is more telling that Madrid have not yet made a big fuss about Ramos being the captain, as they surely would if they were convinced he was staying.
Ramos is reported to have already agreed a contract should he move to United and the fact that it is AS reporting and pushing this story may suggest that they are acting on information from Madrid who intend to keep the story in the news in order to reach a conclusion this summer.
