The Luka Modric transfer saga continues to drag on for a second summer in a row.
The problem for Modric is that his preferred destination, Real Madrid insist that they will not pay more than £30m for the creative midfielder, while Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy wants closer to £40m.
The two sides are miles apart and the stand-off has left Modric sweating on his future, because Spurs insiders insist Levy will not budge as the player has FOUR years left on his contract.
Modric has been training alone since being fined last month for refusing to go on Spurs US tour, in an apparent attempt to force through a move to Real Madrid.
But that power move has backfired and new Tottenham boss Villas-Boas has warned Modric that he needs to be ready to accept he may end up staying and urged him to respond accordingly.
“He is training alone because we decided to do that until his mental state is ready to return to the team,” Villas-Boas said.
“It is important that, in the coming days, he understands he must return to the first team.
“We respect the player’s ambition, but he must also respect the club.”
Villas-Boas went onto tell reporters:
“Until we receive a suitable offer for the player, he will not go.
“The contacts we have had with other clubs have not met with what Tottenham wants for the player.
“We respect the size of Madrid and the other interested clubs, but they must respect what we are doing too.”
AVB went through a similar situation with Nicolas Anelka and Alex at Chelsea last season, where both players wanted to leave. Then, as now, isolated the players from the rest of the first team squad, forcing them to also train away from the first team squad.
Unfortunately for Modric he has picked the one chairman who sticks to his guns, and if Levy values Modric at £40m he is not going to let him go for anything else. Which is why it looks more and more likely that come September 1 that Luka Modric will still be a Tottenham player.
