Modric gone
From the official Spurs website:
CLUB ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH REAL MADRID AND TRANSFER OF LUKA MODRIC
The Club can announce that it has signed a partnership agreement with Real Madrid FC and reached agreement for the transfer of Luka Modric, subject to medical, to the Spanish club.
The partnership agreement will see the two Clubs working together in respect of players, coaching, best practices and commercial relationships.
Real Madrid FC President, Florentino Perez Rodriguez, said, "The strong relationship and affinity between our two clubs has resulted in the cementing of a longer-term partnership and the successful transfer of Luka Modric. We are delighted to welcome Luka and look forward to working closely with Tottenham in the coming years."
Daniel Levy, Chairman, Tottenham Hotspur, commented, "Luka has been a terrific player for us and, whilst we preferred not to part with him, we are pleased that it is to Real Madrid, a club with which we now look forward to sharing a long and productive partnership."
Luka made 160 appearances for the Club, scoring 17 goals after joining from Dinamo Zagreb in the summer of 2008.
We wish him well for the future.
I do love how the partnership gets top billing ahead of the fact we've finally sold Luka Modric. Will be interesting to see exactly what this entails even though they cite players/coaching/commercial as the basis of the partnership. Working closely with Tottenham in the coming years sounds like we're going to go through further protracted long running transfer sagas. Barca will be gutted, looks like Bale has a moved pencilled in to Madrid next summer. Sorry United, but your days of signing are best players are over. Feeder club? Loan deals? Or another relationship similar to the rather confusing one we have Internacional? Hopefully they (Madrid) will be supportive in terms of aiding us when purchasing South American players (what with the complexities of visa approvals). Otherwise, you'd think this was clearly a one-sided relationship. Madrid will always seek to sign our best players, we'll always end up with their young players/loan deals/unwanted ones. We'll see.
Does beg the question that this 'saga' hasn't been half as dramatic behind closed doors compared to the manner it's been covered in the media. Deal probably agreed a while back, hence the lack of crying from Luka/agent. With money in the bank, I assume it means the replacement is done and dusted. So imminent arrivals to the Lane, I expect.
Onwards. Good bye and good luck Luka. You were a wonderful player, a truly gifted one. Hope you don't warm the bench in Madrid but set the pitch on fire.
Not literally of course, that would be hazardous. And a red card offence.
