Real Madrid are becoming increasingly encouraged by Christian Eriksen’s reluctance to sign a new deal at Tottenham.
The Dane is seemingly following in Toby Alderweireld’s shoes and refusing to put pen to paper, potentially paving the way for a summer transfer.
While Los Blancos were initially deterred by Daniel Levy’s stance that it would take a world record €250million to force Spurs to sell, they now believe Eriksen will be significantly cheaper than that.
Spanish publication AS have quoted a source close to the playmaker as suggesting that he could be available for €75m at most, a price tag which makes him a much more realistic prospect. Tottenham would at least be making a decent profit on the £11.5million they forked out to sign the 26-year-old from the Eredivisie nearly six years ago.
Eriksen would be an ideal replacement for Isco, whose relationship with Santiago Solari has been fractured this season, to say the least.
It’s far from guaranteed that the Argentine will still be in charge by the summer window, but by then, the damage may already be done as far as Isco is concerned.
What is almost certain is that Florentino Perez will finally be ready to sanction some big-money moves for high-profile attackers in June.
Real have paid a heavy price for failing to adequately replace Cristiano Ronaldo. They have scored just 28 goals in La Liga, compared to Barcelona’s 53.
At least, the obvious narrative has been to focus on their shortcomings up front. Karim Benzema has looked confident since Solari took over, scoring six goals, but that period has also witnessed the long dry spells we’ve come to expect of the French international.
Of the summer arrivals, Mariano Diaz and Vinicius Jr are not quite ready to step up. The latter is showing ever more promise and Real fans are getting very excited about his potential, but the Bernabeu is a place where the future always seems a problem for tomorrow. Madrid need results now.
Many have already written the season off – with the Champions League their only real hope of salvaging it – and it is little surprise then, that talk has already begun of summer strengthening.
A new centre-forward is the most pressing matter, but bringing in a player like Eriksen, who has shown at Tottenham that he can make the whole team tick, would be another crucial element to their rebuilding.
In many ways, the former Ajax man could be the European champions’ answer to Philippe Coutinho, though hopefully used to better effect given the Brazilian’s struggles in his first year at Barcelona. Like Coutinho, Eriksen can also play in a deeper role, something which would appeal to Real amid uncertainty over Luka Modric’s future and a dip in the Croatian’s performances.
It hasn’t escaped the club’s hierarchy that apart from Benzema and Gareth Bale – and the Welshman’s injuries mean he is out of the equation half the time anyway – Sergio Ramos is their highest goalscorer. The centre-back can always be trusted to weigh in with goals from set pieces and penalties, but those statistics are a reminder that they just aren’t creating enough in open play. Eriksen could be the perfect solution to that problem.
If they are to step up their interest, Real have to overcome a significant hurdle and that is Spurs’ reluctance to do business with them. The two clubs actually agreed a ‘special relationship’ back in 2012 before terminating it within a couple of years, Levy angered by Perez’s capture of Gareth Bale and the sale of Mesut Ozil to Arsenal, strengthening a rival, on the same day.
Eriksen now has just 18 months remaining on his current deal and the north Londoners will not want him to enter the final year without some sort of concrete plan. As for Real, he looks more and more like a relatively inexpensive option who ticks all the boxes.
