Cristiano Ronaldo to deny Harry Kane his dream move as Real Madrid break the bank for Kylian Mbappe - The Warm-Up

Published 25/08/2021 at 07:28 GMT

Cristiano Ronaldo may deny Harry Kane his dream move and Real Madrid break the bank to sign Kylian Mbappe. It is a transfer special Warm-Up. Elsewhere, Fede Valverde of Real Madrid is worth €1 billion, apparently. And AFTV will be an interesting watch should Mikel Arteta's Arsenal side lose to West Brom.

Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus celebrates after scoring his team's third goal before the referee disallowed it during the Serie A match between Udinese Calcio v Juventus at Dacia Arena on August 22, 2021 in Udine, Italy

Image credit: Getty Images

WEDNESDAY’S BIG STORIES

Ronaldo to Man City to deny Kane his dream move

We truly are in late football - late football being, of course, the collapse of the entity that is football as we know it - if Cristiano Ronaldo signs for Manchester City, as reported by L'Équipe.

Champions League

'Mumbling something' - Kane on Bellingham 'trying to put me off' ahead of penalty

01/05/2024 at 07:50

Pep Guardiola coaching Cristiano Ronaldo? Nah, 2008 to 2012 wants a word. 2021 is utter mayhem. Lionel Messi has done one to PSG and Manchester United darling Ronaldo is off to work with the man who once gave him one of the coldest shunnings the world has ever seen.

Who would have thought it, eh?

Certainly not Harry Edward Kane MBE. At the start of the summer he had looked a shoo-in to rock up at the Etihad, score all manner of goals and collect all manner of trophies. However, should Ronaldo move to City, Kane's dream move will have well and truly hit the skids.

And with Messi at PSG, Kylian Mbappe at Real Madrid - more on that below - and Barcelona actually broke, his options are looking, well, limited. Manchester United could conceivably put together a deal to afford him but the narrative is Kane wants to win trophies and there is no guarantee that that will happen at Old Trafford.

'Broke' Madrid bid €160 million for Mbappe

Real Madrid are reportedly broke. The Warm-Up says reportedly because they have had a rummage round and managed to cobble together €160 million to throw towards PSG for the services of Kylian Mbappe.

There has been no clarity on where said rummage happened, but perhaps it was around the Bernabeu, which is currently undergoing a €500-to-€700-million refit - the figure varies depending on source.

If €160 million sounds like a lot of money that is because it is a lot of money. And when it is contextualised by the fact that said player will be available for the sum total of nothing next summer it begins to sound like a lot more.

Mbappe might not go this summer - Madrid, as some have suggested, might be indulging in some clever transfer-window politicking. They could, the theory goes, be bidding in the knowledge that it will be rejected out of hand in the hope that their willingness to swoop this summer could grease the negotiations with Mbappe's people next year.

One thing that looks increasingly likely: Mbappe is off to Madrid, and they will have to break the bank to do so - whether that be in a transfer fee or a signing-on fee.

€1 billion release clause you say? Otherwise known as the Neymar effect

Real Madrid have renewed the contract of Fede Valverde until 2027.

The 23-year-old has been at the club since 2016 when he signed from Penarol. He is highly thought of at the Bernabeu - hence and extension of two years and the doubling of his release clause from €500 million to €1 billion.

This is what the Warm-Up calls the Neymar effect. Why? Well, Barcelona once inserted a prohibitive - or what they felt was prohibited - release clause of €222 million in the contract of Neymar.

It turned out it wasn't prohibitive and it was executed by PSG.

Therefore, footballer clubs, when inserting buyout clauses, are actually making them prohibitive.

IN THE CHANNELS

A little tip of the hat to Oldham fans for their creativity behind their attempts to bring attention to the ownership of their club: Lobbing tennis balls on to the pitch during their League Cup match with Accrington.

The fans want Abdallah Lemsagam to sell up, with the owner having previously been accused of ruining the legacy of the club.

Oldham won 5-4 on penalties to progress to the third round.

HAT-TIP

Is it possible to move a football club from one city to another, yet keep it the same club? As Wimbledon's owners found out when they tried to move to Milton Keynes, place is the most important thing. A new book from The Warm-Up's very own Andi Thomas - called Underground, Overground: The fault lines of football clubs - looks back at how the club's hierarchy tried - and ultimately failed - to claim that the club would be unchanged by the relocation.

Read an extract from said book here.

You can buy the book direct from the publishers here or from Amazon here.