Real Madrid baulk at price tags for Ribery and Alonso (Feature)

By Duncan Shaw Jul 8, 2009, 9:44 GMT

Madrid - Real Madrid are baulking at the price tags that Bayern Munich and Liverpool have placed on Franck Ribery and Xabi Alonso, according to their general director Jorge Valdano.

Real have already splashed out around 210 million euros this summer, in the most profligate spending spree that football has ever seen, on Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema and Raul Albiol.

And the spree is not yet over. According to the Spanish media, controversial president Florentino Perez - who has been criticized for his profligacy by prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and UEFA president Michel Platini, among others - still has another 90 million euros available for further signings.

But Valdano is disappointed at the prices that Bayern and Liverpool are demanding for their stars, prices that might actually have increased because of Perez's spending in the past month.

Valadano is quoted in sports daily Marca on Wednesday as saying that 'it seems that Ribery is not going to leave Bayern Munich this season.

They (Bayern) have found many ways to say 'no', sometimes saying 'no' directly, sometimes talking about (a transfer fee of) 80 million euros (111.73 million dollars), which is another way of saying 'no''.

Valdano added that Real would 'wait for another opportunity (to sign Ribery), which will surely arrive. The player has two more years left on his contract, and life is long.'

Interestingly, an online poll taken by Marca shows, on Tuesday, that only 17 per cent of Real fans think that the club should splash out 80 million euros on Ribery.

Valdano, the right-hand man of Real president Florentino Perez, also pointed out that the signing of Xabi Alonso was on hold, because of the price put on the midfielder by Liverpool, believed to be around 30 million euros.

'There was an approach to Liverpool,' Valdano told Marca, 'but they have put up the transfer fee too high for our liking.

Everyone knows that he (Alonso) is a player who has always been interesting for us. He is a man who can organize, who is in a phase of maturity in his sporting career.'

According to Marca and rival daily AS on Tuesday, because of the high price of Alonso Real are now negotiating with AS Roma for midfielder Daniel De Rossi.

AS also claims that Real are close to selling unwanted striker Klass Jan Huntelaar to Bundesliga club Vfb Stuttgart, for around 18 million euros.

Valdano rejected the possibility of signing Brazil right-back Maicon - for whom Inter Milan have allegedly priced at 40 million euros - because 'in that position we have Sergio Ramos.'

When asked about Ronaldo - who was welcomed to Madrid by 85,000 fans on Monday - Valdano said that 'we are not worried about his private life, but we are worried about the pressure he will be subjected to by the non-sporting press.

He is the kind of player like (Zinedine) Zidane, one of those that turns out to be unforgettable for the fans.'