Updates to my various posts last week. A bit more info. Basically Bale’s is not only the largest transfer in football history it is proving probably the most complex transfer to negotiate and document, partly due to existing commercial activities, partly due to the goalposts inevitably being moved by all sides and circumstances, partly due to the linked transfers potentially involved.
Last Thursday I posted a summary of RM’s financial position. This appears to have been resolved by bank guarantees covering any future payments to Spurs, but RM still has to raise cash quickly either to fund the down payment, or to repay any extra short term loans RM take out. RM has had to use all its political clout to get their banks to play ball. The financial situation of Spanish football (taxes owed, club debts, split of TV income) is a much bigger issue than I can cover here and I expect the Bale transfer to be looked back on one day as a defining moment in Spanish football. The record may well be Bale’s for a long time.
The headline price RM pay will be the £ number that the media, fans and football world will focus on. But a chunk of the ‘value’ in the deal may only come out later. I can’t say more than that at this stage. Suffice it to say Spurs do not want to burn bridges like they did with a couple of ex-players. It’s not just a question of haggling over 100m v 85m v 75m or even how long RM has to pay for him. That’s the easier bit. Make no mistake, this now seems to be a transfer that the player and both clubs want to happen this year. But it is still not 100% it will get done. I have no idea whose faces would then have most egg on!
Last Friday I commented ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’. This is the interesting part. Relations between some of the individuals involved in Bale negotiations remain tense. But the move for Willian by Chelsea was widely disliked and it pushed parties together. As I said last Friday, there is something called the Law of Unintended Consequences. It’s 50:50 but the consequence of Chelsea’s cleverness might just be that a better player than Willian turns up at WHL, at least for one season. Just to be clear, this would be on top of Lamela.
