Madrid, July 23 (DPA) Real Madrid are clearly annoyed at unwanted striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar finally turning down a lucrative offer from VfB Stuttgart.
After more than two weeks of ardous negotiations, it seemed that Huntelaar was finally set fair to sign for Stuttgart for around 18 million euros (25.57 million dollars).
The Dutch forward had requested not to go to Real’s pre-season training camp in Ireland in order to negotiate with Stuttgart.
On Wednesday evening, however, Huntelaar broke off these negotiations, apparently because he was not satisfied with the salary on offer. On Thursday he will report for training with Real, who are disappointed at his return.
According to Marca Thursday, “he (Huntelaar) is becoming a problem.”
London clubs Arsenal and Tottenham are rumoured to be interested in him, though Real have so far received no concrete offers from them.
New Real coach Manuel Pellgrini is keen to slim down a squad currently running at 32. So far, only Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus), Javi Garcia (Benfica), Javier Saviola (Benfica), Jordi Codina (Getafe) and Alberto Bueno (Valladolid) have left the club.
Huntelaar’s compatriots Rafael Van der Vaart, Royston Drenthe and Ruud Van Nistelrooy also seem to be on Pellegrini’s “blacklist”, together with Michel Salgado, Gabriel Heinze and Mahamadou Diarra.
Real have spent almost 220 million euros this summer in a record-breaking spending spree, buying Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), Kaka (AC Milan), Karim Benzema (Lyon), Raul Albiol (Valencia) and Esteban Granero (Getafe).
rounak