Real will miss out on David Villa.

Real Madrid will miss out on signing Valencia striker, David Villa, after shooting themselves in the foot over the transfer fee. Valencia are thought to value the Spain front man at around £40 million but were asking Madrid to pay in excess of £50 million.

This could be due to the way that Madrid have already been acting in the summer transfer market with the signings of Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo. The only reason that Valencia would have been asking so much for their best player is the simple fact that Madrid quite clearly have more cash stashed away than any other club in Spain.

It could mean a new chance for either Barcelona or Liverpool to sign Villa and they would probably get him for the smaller fee of £40 million. It is thought that Villa wants to stay in Spain but he has said if he does go abroad then the only club he would join would be Rafael Benitez’s side.

It has been no secret that his strike partner for Spain, Fernando Torres, has expressed his immense interest that the club do whatever it takes to bring him to the Premier League and if it happened then Villa wouldn’t have a problem settling down because so many of the Liverpool squad are from Spain, including the manager, who once managed Villa when he was in charge of Valencia.

Madrid’s Director of Sport, Jorge Valdano said: “If Barca have offered 50 million for Villa, plus Bojan and Caceres, I would sell if I was Valencia because we're not going to try and top that. We have been in discussions over the last week and there were disagreements. On top of money, they want a player and that was causing problems.”

“What had seemed to be a deal on track instead became twisted. We don't know why the price became so high.”

The reason the price became so high is quite simple. When you start throwing your money around as a football club then other clubs with the best players will automatically want more as the original club can obviously meet a high valuation. This was demonstarted perfectly in the Premier League when Manchester City were quoted over £100 million for Kaka and then only a few months later, Milan sold him for just over half of this amount.

A move for Villa looks pretty much set in stone and the only remaining problem is where he goes. Obviously he would like to stay in Spain and Valencia would probably prefer to accept the offer from Barcelona but if the player wants a new challenge then he would be a fantastic signing for Liverpool. He could well be the player that the English side needs to push on across all fronts next season and it could be an arrival that helps Rafa Benitez keep a lot of his more influential players.

Liverpool would have a hard time though in matching the financial and player offer that Barca have put together but it is all now down to Villa.

Real Madrid set to axe a whole host of talent.

Real Madrid are reportedly looking to axe a whole host of talented players as they continue to make room for the Madrid revolution that is currently taking place at the club. Madrid have splashed out over £130 million on two players so far this summer and club president, Florentino Perez, wants players sold so the buying can carry on.

The likes of Arjen Robben, Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Gabriel Heinze are all said to be going on the transfer list as Madrid look to make initial funds to go with the reported 300 million euros that Perez is said to be personally funding. A whole host of Premier League clubs should be on red alert as offers are likely to flood in for the players.

Madrid are still locked in negotiations over Valencia striker, David Villa, as his current club want £40 million for his services, a figure that Madrid have refused to meet. It could well act as proof that Madrid do not currently have bottomless pockets and it seems that they will accept offers on nearly anyone in the squad in order to make a number of other moves near certainties.

It is a strange move because it seems to damage the immediate future of the club. Huge signings are one thing but the matter that propels a club to success is the quality that lies in the fringes of the squad. A lot of these players being talked about can play a big part for Madrid and they would do a very good job if they went to another side. Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo may be the best players in the world but they cannot hold a side together by themselves.

Furthermore, maybe Perez should not promise the players arriving at Madrid stupid amounts of money and fortune. This would mean that they would not be forced to sell some of the club’s most influential players in order to facilitate the Glacticos dream of one man.

Barcelona seem to have wasted no time at all as it has been confirmed that they are also in talks about signing David Villa, meaning that Madrid could miss out on one of their most prominent targets due to some blanket and blitz decision making.

Van Nistelrooy would be a terrific signing for any club that wishes to go for him. Spurs are reported to be readying a bid but the Dutchman seems keen to stay where he is and does not appear to have lost a single bit of his touch in front of goal. When he is fit again he would be one of the first names down on that Madrid starting line up and the Spanish club needs to remember just how influential some of these players can be before they start axing them left, right and centre.

Nobody would blame a club sniping in and snapping up a Madrid player who would be better served trying to earn some good success at a lesser club than being a small fish in a big pond at Madrid. A lot of people said that this big spending would have repercussions and this could be the start of it.

Inter Milan are the first side to cotton on.

Inter Milan have become the first side to cotton on to how to deal with the Real Madrid spending fiasco. The Italian champions have quoted the Spanish shoppers a price of £80 million for front man, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. This means that if Real want to sign their man then they will have to pay the same price that they have just offered Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo.

It appears that Jose Mourinho is no mug and this news is the first bit of evidence that the Italian giants are the first to know how to handle the Madrid spending spree. Madrid seem intent on buying their way back to success and out of trouble and are looking to poach the best players from sides all over Europe.

The way to combat this is quite simple; think of the most ridiculous price that you would accept for each player and then quote that figure. This is exactly what Inter have done and it is the best proof yet that a club is standing up to Madrid and is refusing to be pushed around over their best talent.

It is highly unlikely that anyone at Madrid would rate Ibrahimovic in the same light as Ronaldo and Inter may have priced Madrid out of the market for their front man. It is quite a simple and clever tactic that has been used by Mourinho that allows the club to state that a player is not for sale in the only way that Madrid would understand.

By setting the price so high, they are effectively saying that their best player is their most valuable asset and a high price tag seems to be the only way to put Madrid off. If United had said that they wanted £130 million for Ronaldo then Florentino Perez may not have been so happy in signing a monumental cheque. It is completely pointless clubs selling off their best assets to a side that is deploying themselves in black and white.

This news could also prompt Madrid in having to reorganise slightly in the respect that it is likely to make other clubs adopt the same idea. They will already have a price in mind for many of their players but once they know Madrid are interested then they can put a few million on top because of the way Madrid are acting in the summer transfer market.

It is an incredibly backward way for football to be run but it is the only way to stop Madrid sniffing around a player in the same way that they did with Ronaldo, until they ultimately got their way. It seems that price tags are the only thing the Spanish side have come to understand and this may well spark light bulbs in the heads of many important people at big clubs.

Fair play to Mourinho for using some initiative to try and get a mega deal that would have seen a player sold for drastically more than he is actually worth. Madrid will now have to be careful with their next targets as clubs could now look to take advantage in mega proportions.