So where is bale going?

Bale and Madrid (and Daniel Levy and AVB and Spurs) find themselves in a crucial situation. As detailed by The Mirror’s Darren Lewis, Real have already made an offer of €100 million (even though chairman Florentino Pérez suggested it was a figure too high for Bale), which has been rejected. Spurs wanted Jese Rodriguez and Alvaro Morata to be part of the deal (and if players were going to be included, it needed to be based on the contingency that they do not count for more than 10 percent of the whole agreement), but neither of them want to go to the London club.

That itself is interesting. The impression we have after the preseason under Carlo Ancelotti is that one but not both would feature regularly—even though it would be from the bench—for Real Madrid this season. But I guess each player thinks he will be the chosen one.

So it is all about money now, unless Madrid convince Levy and AVB to include a player that is surplus to the requirements at the Bernabeu (like Fabio Coentrao). And The Mirror claims Levy wants around €120 million.

And this is where it gets really intriguing. Levy, whom I admire for the stand he takes for his club and his professionalism, would take the negotiations to the last day of August even though he knows quite clearly that Bale wants to join the Madrid club.

But…AVB, Madrid, Bale and his representatives (i.e., everybody else) would like everything to be sorted much earlier. Real Madrid suspects that the seven points lost at the beginning of the season by Spurs as the Luka Modric situation was sorted out work in their favour—the ongoing negotiations with Bale could have a negative effect on the side.

Levy thinks differently. He is buying the players AVB has been asking for and some more will arrive in the next few days if everything goes according to plan. The team is ready for the Premier League. And he doesn’t need to sell.

So…what are the odds on Bale leaving on the last day or two of the transfer market?