Bayern general manager plays down Blues’ bid for Frenchman

Earlier this week, the nation’s least accurate favourite tabloid claimed that Roman Abramovich would personally fly to Germany to thrash out a £40m deal for Real Madrid target Franck Ribery.

For that kind of money, the Blues would probably expect all of the Frenchman’s body parts, but Bayern Munich general manager Uli Hoeness has insisted that this isn’t the case:

“What does he expect for [£40m] - Ribery’s right leg? Seriously, we stopped talking about Franck leaving a month ago because it isn’t going to happen.”

Once again, Bayern are adamant that they will not relinquish their grip on the Bundesliga’s biggest star, even though he has personally expressed his desire to play for Madrid.

Ribery was not fit for the start of the Bundesliga season, but Bayern coach Louis van Gaal allowed him to train with the France team this week as a means of improving his recent grumpy attitude. Despite the Dutchman’s claims that he would not be fit to face the Faroe Islands last night, he did play in the second half.

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Bayern Munich deliver “Das Ribery-Ultimatum”

The folks at Bild, Europe’s best-selling newspaper, are today claiming that Bayern Munich have delivered “Das Ribery Ultimatum” to Real Madrid.

Apparently, if the Spaniards are to secure the services of Franck Ribery, they must do so in the next nine days, before the Bundesliga side head off to Donaueschingen for their pre-season training camp.

Los Blancos will have to pay a ridiculously inflated €80m for the French midfielder, a price on which Die Roten’s general manager Uli Hoeness is “not willing to deviate from by a millimetre”.

Bild imply that the transfer saga is affecting Ribery’s pre-season regime, criticising his posture as being “lacklustre” over the past few days of training. Equally, captain Mark van Bommel is calling for a resolution to the situation as quickly as possible, labelling the whole debacle as “theatre”.

The Spoiler’s verdict: Madrid would be absolutely daft to fork out that kind of money for a player whose personal honours don’t extend far beyond a German domestic league title, but we wouldn’t rule it out. Signing the best player from each of the major leagues (Ronaldo from England, Kaka from Italy, Ribery from Germany) is exactly the kind of statement of intent Florentino Perez is looking to make.

French prankster intends to join the Florentino Perez revolution

A few weeks ago, Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was adamant that Franck Ribery would not leave the Bundesliga club this summer.

The handsome midfielder was present at Bayern’s first day of  training yesterday, but French daily sport paper L’Equipe believe he used the opportunity to drop a bombshell on new manager Louis van Gaal. Apparently, Ribery has expressed an interest in joining his national team-mate Karim Benzema at Real Madrid:

[Translated from French]

Ribery told L’equipe of his desire to move elsewhere: “It’s decided, I want to leave.”

When asked whether he intended to move to Real Madrid, or whether it was another club he wanted to go to, he spontaneously replied: “Yes, it will be Real or nothing.”

Die Roten’s general manager Uli Hoeness was not surprised by Ribery’s attitude, reasoning that “Life is not always a fairytale.” The former German striker, however, made it clear that the club will do everything in their power