Sergio Ramos would like to leave the Bernabéu for Old Trafford, despite
being under contract at the La Liga club for another two years.
Photograph: BPI/Rex Shutterstock
Sergio Ramos is determined to leave Real Madrid and join Manchester United this summer, according to sources close to the player.
Ramos has been informed by Real Madrid that they received a formal bid from United valued at £28.5m (€40m) and that he has told the club he wants to leave this summer. The 29-year-old also informed Real that he is only interested in joining United, despite interest from Manchester City, according to Sky Sports.
United are determined to sign Ramos and made a bid prior to the player meeting the Madrid chief executive, José Ángel Sánchez, last week. The Spanish club continued to say they had not yet any offers. There has been no follow up bid thus far.
During the meeting, held at the club’s Valdebebas headquarters, Ramos confirmed to Madrid that he intended to leave and asked them to listen to offers.
A conversation with the club’s president, Florentino Pérez, followed but there has been no reconciliation. Neither the player nor the club have made any public statement.
Madrid did not adopt the standard response, which is to insist that the player would only leave if United met the full value of his buy-out clause which stands at €180m, but they do value him prohibitively high, setting the price close to €100m. United are determined to use David de Gea as leverage and are prepared to prevent the Spanish goalkeeper from leaving this summer.
Ramos has two years remaining on his contract but negotiations for a renewal have reached a stalemate. He earns around €6m a year, but this is not just a tactic designed to draw a better offer from Madrid. The relationship between Madrid and the player’s camp is extremely tense and although it is impossible to predict how this will end, Ramos’s determination to leave is real.
Roy Hodgson praised Wayne Rooney’s strength of character after his captain
retained his composure following a series of missed chances, and his discipline
having been elbowed, to conjure the winner which hauled him level with Gary
Lineker as England’s joint second-leading scorer.
Rooney, floored by Bostjan Cesar’s flailing arm moments earlier, pounced on
Bojan Jokic’s mistake four minutes from time to slide his 48th goal for his
country beyond Samir Handanovic and maintain England’s perfect record in Group
E. The 29-year-old is one shy of Sir Bobby Charlton’s record, with San Marino
awaiting in September when qualification can effectively be secured. His eight
goals in 10 internationals have contributed heavily to the side’s unbeaten
record this season.
The Manchester United striker had missed a flurry of opportunities earlier in
a frantic contest illuminated by Jack Wilshere’s first goals for the national
side. “Wayne Rooney’s performance says a lot of things about him as a man,” said
Hodgson. “Just before he took that chance he had taken a nasty blow from an
elbow, which could have decked many a player and led to him losing his
discipline. But it didn’t and he simply got up and played on.
“The fact one or two chances had gone begging earlier also didn’t worry him
because, when the ball fell to him four minutes from the end, he still stuck it
away with aplomb. We can rely on that man. I’d have liked him to get a hat-trick
today so all the talk of the record would have been finished, but he has plenty
of time on his side to achieve that still.”
Lineker was quick to congratulate Rooney, who now boasts 28 goals in
qualification games for the World Cup or European Championships, on his
achievement. “I’m pleased to be joined by Wayne Rooney on 48 goals,” he said.
“It seemed, during a five-minute spell in the second half, it might not happen
when he struck two over the bar, but Wayne’s been a consistently excellent
player over the years.
“I’m sure he will go on and surpass the great Sir Bobby Charlton. He’s still
only 29 and he’s a formidable talent and he has a fabulous goalscoring record,
especially in qualifiers.”
Cesar was not cautioned for the elbow flung at the striker as the captains
clashed inside the penalty area just after Slovenia’s equaliser, which had tied
the game at 2-2. The pair had tangled once before, in a friendly at Wembley in
2009 when the England striker had won a penalty despite appearing to connect
heavily with Cesar’s ankle. The Slovenian was booked and had subsequently spent
a lengthy spell on the sidelines, describing the tackle as “stupid, stupid foul”
at the time.“We thought it could have been a penalty,” said Hodgson of the
incident in Ljubljana. “But the referee handled the game well. Slovenia are a
strong, physical, aggressive team: Fabian Delph took an elbow to his jaw and
Raheem Sterling a nasty kick at the end of the game as well. But the players
showed their resilience. The team spirit is getting better all the time. They
didn’t leave much on the field in terms of effort and determination.” Jack Wilshere lets fly to score his second goal.
Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images
While there was frustration at the nature of the first-half goal which meant
England trailed at the break, stemming as it did from a Phil Jones throw-in deep
in Slovenia’s half, Hodgson was hugely encouraged by the recovery mounted
courtesy of Wilshere’s eye-catching brace. “His whole performance was quality,”
said the manager. “I’m very happy with the goals he’s scored but, in the second
half in particular, he controlled that midfield. If we can keep him fit and he
can get plenty of PL [Premier League] matches and international matches, at his
young age we think we’ve got a good player going forward. “We know we have
excellent technicians in midfield in Wilshere, Jordan Henderson and Delph, James
Milner and Adam Lallana, and that they’ve all got goals in them. Now they have
to prove it. We’ll need their goals. We can’t just rely on our front
players.”
The win means England have now gone 11 games unbeaten since their elimination
from the World Cup in Brazil last June, with this their first season without
defeat since 1990-91.
“The team has made progress,” added Hodgson. “It’s a good achievement,
completing a season of 10 games with eight wins and two draws. That’s not been
done for over 20 years. The players deserve some credit for that, and get plenty
of credit from me. Now we have to keep building on it. We want to keep that
unbeaten run going.”
