Ramos is keen to wave goodbye to Real Madrid this summer as he looks for a route away from the club.
MANCHESTER, June 23 – Manchester United have lodged an opening bid for Sergio Ramos and the Real Madrid defender has asked his club to consider it.
United’s written offer is understood to be around £35million and came as Ramos met with Real Madrid officials on Wednesday morning and reaffirmed his decision to leave the club.
Madrid chief executive Jose Angel Sanchez sat down with the player and his brother and agent Rene Ramos at the club’s Valdebebas training ground but instead of reconciliation the player requested that the club open negotiations with United.
The opening bid is understood to be independent of David de Gea’s move in the opposite direction but it is clear United will now use their interest in Ramos to come to an agreement over the sale of their goalkeeper.
In the last two days the war between Ramos and the Spanish club’s president Florentino Perez has escalated beyond the parameters of stalled contract negotiations and on Wednesday Ramos asked Real to climb down from their stance of only allowing him to leave if a club pays his £180m buy-out clause.
Madrid are already looking at possible replacements for the defender including two players Manchester United have in the past targeted:Athletic Bilbao’s Aymeric Laporte and Valencia’s Nicolas Otamendi.
Earlier Pedro Riesco, who works alongside the player’s brother and agent Rene, suggested Ramos’s departure was almost inevitable.
Riesco told Radio Marca: ‘With everything that has happened it will be very difficult for Sergio Ramos to stay at Madrid.’
Since the player admitted privately that he wanted out of Madrid he has been subject to a smear campaign by media that he believes is being directed by the club’s president.
Riesco added: ‘Sergio is a symbol of this club. He has nothing to prove. But so many things are being said about him.
“There is so much manipulation to discredit his name via spokesmen who behave like puppets saying he is not respecting the club and that he is just a money-grabber.”
The battle over Ramos’ future centres on the players contract with the club that runs until 2017 and sees him pick up £3.9m net a season.
Real are understood to be willing to pay him £5.3m but Ramos believes he is worth more and cannot understand why the club has allowed him to reach the last two years of his contract.
President Perez is reluctant to make Ramos the club’s third top earner after Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale because he is wary of the power he has in the dressing room.
The president dislikes the fact that Ramos was one of those players who publicly backed Carlo Ancelotti after Perez sacked the Italian this summer.
-DailyMail-
