Telegraph:
Crazy, crazy club. Honestly it's embarrassing. Bale is great but these sums are absurd. With Ronaldo's new contract isn't it more sensible to wait a year and then buy him for £60m?
It is understood that Tottenham Hotspur are holding out for £104 million for the 24-year-old forward who is pushing hard for a move this summer. In addition Real Madrid want to pay Bale a salary of £7.8 million a year – net of tax – over a proposed six-year contract.
Given the Spanish tax laws now demand 52 per cent of salary goes to the state, the cost of Bale’s wages double for the club and equates to around £150,000 a week for the player after the tax is paid.
It means that Real will have to pay £104 million to Spurs to sign Bale and just over £94 million in wages over the term of his contract. The full cost of signing Bale will be even greater when agents’ fees and other payments are taken into account.
Real insiders have been claiming for days that club president Florentino Pérez will meet Spurs chairman Daniel Levy in Miami on Wednesday.
However, Spurs sources have played down the idea, insisting nothing is scheduled, and have also rejected any suggestion that a payment plan for Real to sign Bale has been agreed.
Spurs insist they are not in active talks with Real over Bale and will enter discussions only if any offer is made far closer to their valuation.
The club also insist that they held talks in the first place only out of respect for Real and also the player with Bale having pleaded with Spurs to listen to what was being proposed. There is anger that it is being assumed a deal is close to being agreed.
At the end of last season, assurances were given to Spurs head coach Andre Villas-Boas that Bale would not be sold this summer no matter what was offered.
Crazy, crazy club. Honestly it's embarrassing. Bale is great but these sums are absurd. With Ronaldo's new contract isn't it more sensible to wait a year and then buy him for £60m?