Bale Close to Madrid

The Gareth Bale transfer saga could soon be drawing to a close with the Tottenham forward's proposed move to Real Madrid imminent.

Bale has consistently been linked with a move to La Liga during the transfer window, although Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas has denied claims a deal is done.
The contract is yet to be signed but the transfer has moved a step closer to being finalised, Sky sources understand.
A world record breaking fee of as much as £94million has been suggested for the Wales international and the money from the sale would help finance a busy summer of transfers for Villas-Boas' side.

Andre Villa-Boas says there will be more transfers in and out of Tottenham during the summer window, and feels his team will be stronger than last season.

Tottenham have spent £60million to bring four new signings to White Hart Lane, including a club-record £26million on Valencia striker Roberto Soldado.
But that figure could be smashed again, with a fee in the region of £30million likely to be required to attract Anzhi Makachkala's Brazilian midfielder Willian to north London.
Spurs have also been linked with a move for Roma and Argentina forward Erik Lamela.
Bale will play no part in the first leg of Tottenham's Europa League play-off against Dinamo Tbilisi on Thursday because of a foot injury.

"That is not true," said the Tottenham manager.
While Bale has been recovering, Tottenham have spent £60million on four new signings and they could shell out that same figure over the next two days to land Willian and Lamela.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to the reasoning behind the record splurge by Daniel Levy. One is that he wants to bring the stellar signings in to persuade Bale to stay and the other is that the chairman is already spending the world-record fee the Londoners would receive if the Welshman left for the Bernabeu.
Villas-Boas was asked which one was the case and was reluctant to say that the new signings had been bought in order to try to tempt Bale to stay.
"Ideally we want to keep everyone to make us stronger - that is the ultimate objective of the club," the Spurs manager said.
"In the end, anything can happen. We are dragging ourselves into the last weeks of transfer activity and it can become very, very frantic."