Madrid To Go To The Glazers - Report

[Bazza]

Real Madrid will reportedly sidestep Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United and lodge their bid for Cristiano Ronaldo straight to the Glazers.

The Daily Express claims that the Spanish giants will offer £75million for the Portuguese winger's signature but, aware of Ferguson's determination to hang on to his star player, will make the proposal directly to the club's owners.

Ferguson, though, appeared confident two weeks ago that the Americans would not entertain such an offer.

"I've had a couple of meetings with the Glazers and their attitude was, 'to hell with them'. They would sit a player in the stand - I'm telling you - to prove a point," he insisted.

"They're not going to give in. They've got balls and I've been delighted with them in that respect."

But, maintains the newspaper, 'that will not deter Real from going direct to the Glazers and it is becoming increasingly difficult for Ronaldo to return to Old Trafford. Real are fully briefed on the Glazers' highly-leveraged ownership of the club - with massive annual interest payments - and are not deterred by the Americans' insistence that their £600m debts and £80m interest repayments can be managed out of club resources.'

Should the seemingly unlikely claim from the Express that Madrid have offered Ronaldo £300,000 per week be true, then it is easy to see why the player's head has been turned.