Gareth Bale edging close to Spurs departure as Real Madrid close in on £86m move

 
SWINDON, ENGLAND - JULY 16: Gareth Bale of Tottenham Hotspur in action during the pre season friendly between Tottenham Hotspur and Swindon Town at the County Ground on July 16, 2013 in Swindon, England.
Mark Thompson/Getty Images
Simon Johnson23 August 2013

Real Madrid are on the verge of completing an £86million deal for Gareth Bale and plan to ­unveil the Tottenham winger at the Bernabeu next week.

Spurs sporting director Franco Baldini has travelled to the Spanish capital to conclude negotiations. It is believed the transfer will not include a makeweight and will be paid in four instalments.

Spurs are in talks over Madrid left-back Fabio Coentrao but chairman Daniel Levy wants it kept separate so he can have the kudos of Bale’s sale setting a new world record, topping the £80m Real paid Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009.

It is believed the Spanish club are delaying the announcement because they do not want tonight’s testimonial at the Bernabeu for club great Raul to be overshadowed.

Real are expected to confirm the switch tomorrow and Bale, who will sign a six-year £150,000-a-week contract, should make his debut at home to Athletic Bilbao on September 1.

Tottenham are also in action tonight for the first leg of their Europa League play-off against Dinamo Tbilisi but Bale has not made the trip to Georgia, officially because of a foot injury.

The Wales international has not ­featured since a friendly against Swindon five weeks ago due to various injuries, although his absence has coincided with a change of heart over wanting to leave.

It was during last month’s Hong Kong tournament that Bale made his intentions clear, dealing a blow to Levy, who was determined to keep the player.

Spurs have already spent big in the transfer window to compensate for his departure with £60m going on Paulinho, Nacer Chadli, Roberto Soldado and Etienne Capoue.

Brazil international Willian has passed a medical ahead of a £30m transfer from Anzhi Makhachkala and will be confirmed shortly.

But Levy is about to take the club’s spending beyond £100m with the signing of Erik Lamela from Roma.

Talks have been taking place between the clubs over a £25.5m transfer for the 21-year-old, who has been offered a six-year contract worth £40,000-a-week.

Villas-Boas is keen to strengthen his defence too and on top of Coentrao, he wants to sign a centre-half.

He is closing in on long-term target Vlad Chiriches with ­Tottenham agreeing to pay Steaua Bucharest £6.8m up front. Significantly, Steaua left him out of their Champions League qualifier against Legia Warsaw last night.

Spurs have also joined the race for England Under-21 international Eric Dier, who is also wanted by Chelsea and Everton.

Dier, who joined Sporting Lisbon’s academy as a youngster because his parents moved to Portugal for work, is valued at £6.4m but Tottenham have only offered £4.3m. On top of Bale’s imminent departure, Spurs have already raised £25m from the sales of Steven Caulker, Tom Huddlestone, Scott Parker and Clint Dempsey and more squad players could follow out of the club.

Tonight, though, the focus for Villas-Boas is on events on the pitch.

He said: “This play-off is extremely difficult. It can knock you out even before a taste of it has happened so we will pick a strong team. We have approached this competition very seriously. We set out a good example [last season] that it was possible to play Thursday evenings and Sundays with the same team mostly and we had good success with results in fixtures after the Europa League in the Premier League, so the focus will be exactly the same.”

Sandro, Aaron Lennon and Jan ­Vertonghen will not feature as Villas-Boas has decided to rest them.

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