da dobrowin： You really do know there’s nothing to talk about when the transfer stories come thick and fast. But it’s not just the ‘thickness’ and the ‘fastness’ that dazzles and confuses during silly season, it’s the sheer ‘silliness’.
da dobrowin： The Sergio Ramos whispers are certainly silly.
It might be true, he might be unsettled at the Bernabeu and he might be on his way to Old Trafford, but that doesn’t stop the talk from being pretty silly around the player.
Firstly it is said that he is unhappy at Real Madrid and will not sign a new contract. You can see why a player would want to quit Madrid for the sunny climes of Lancashire. Jokes aside, though Manchester United are an attractive proposition again, back in the Champions League and threatening to spend like a drunken sailor, United are capable of attracting players of the calibre of Ramos.
The thing is, though, would Ramos really want to leave? Madrid is the pinnacle of football for a lot of Spaniards and Hispanics the world over, he’s their best defender and he still has a lot to offer. He also still has two years left on his contract and is reportedly unhappy that they haven’t offered him a new one sooner. That just sounds like a bargaining ploy really, doesn’t it?
In fact, Barcelona Presidential candidate, Jordi Majo has announced that Ramos was offered to him as a ‘trump card’ in his election bid.
Ramos to Barcelona is a sillier story than Ramos to United, but the Barcelona one is probably the hint that none of this is genuinely on the table.
After all that’s happened between the two clubs over the past five years or so, all the bad blood between Mourinho and Guardiola, it’s hard to see a player who was so much involved as Ramos crossing the divide. Surely if his agent were offering him to Barcelona it was to light a fire underneath the Real Madrid bosses.
If Real Madrid themselves were offering Ramos, it was then surely only a hint to Ramos that he’s not irreplaceable. It’s just the contract dance.
And that leaves Manchester United. It would perhaps be the coup of the summer if they were able to bring Ramos into their shaky defence. And to get him as part of the deal to let De Gea go makes perfect sense from a United point of view. They’d lose their prized goalkeeper, but they were resigned to that anyway. But losing him in this way would at least make it easier for them to sign a top class defender.
But again, all of this just smacks of negotiation dancing. United want to show Real that De Gea is valuable to them, and that Real can’t just offer £13m and take their goalkeeper.
This is a case of all parties bearing their teeth and assuming false positions to scare other parties into a deal. Real’s reported offer for De Gea can’t have been a serious one, United demanding Ramos is surely to test their resolve, Ramos to Barcelona is laughable and if the player says he wants to move to United are we really sure that’s not just a negotiation ploy?
If United could pull this off it would perhaps be the signing of the summer. They’d get one of the World’s top defenders for a couple of million pounds plus a goalkeeper who was leaving anyway. Either way they need a defender, to get Ramos in a deal like this only frees up some money they can use to pile into a deal for a striker.
It really would be the signing of the summer, but the more likely thing still looks like De Gea will go to Real and Ramos will sign an improved contract. In the end, Real always get their man.
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