COMMENT: If Florentino Perezis serious about finally landing David de Gea, it's going to take more than a grand gesture of €70 million to convince the goalkeeper to leave Manchester United.
€70 million? Yeah, €70 million. That's the amount set as a buyout clause in De Gea's current deal. Though, (and this is just one of the problems Real must overcome) this was only triggered in June last year.
Before then, Real - courtesy of a clause in De Gea's contract - were the one club which could sign the Spain No1 for €50 million. That Florentino and the Real board allowed the June 15 deadline to pass without even an approach to get the ball rolling is just one of a raft of forced errors which has Jose Mourinho, the United manager, remaining quietly confident of De Gea's commitment - no matter where his team finish this season.
For Florentino, in a perfect world, he'd just have to click his fingers and De Gea - or for that matter any player in the world - would be doing all he can to engineer a move to Madrid. Luka Modric. Gareth Bale. Even Cristiano Ronaldo. As much as Real wanted these players, it was they who picked up the slack and drove negotiations from their end of the table.
But De Gea, despite his Madrid roots, is a different case.
Inside the Real boardroom, Florentino has made it clear: David de Gea must be Real Madrid's next great goalkeeper. A Madrid lad. A goalkeeper destined to be Spain's first-choice for the next decade. It's unfathomable to even consider De Gea pursuing a career elsewhere...
But that, as De Gea's camp are questioning, is today. Florentino could've signed the United man for €50 million last summer. A deal was there to be done. But he pulled back. Why? Because of a claimed sex scandal that De Gea found himself caught up in - and which ended up being thrown out. Vicente del Bosque, Spain's Euros coach, stood by De Gea. United simply dismissed it. And Spain's players rallied around their goalkeeper. But Florentino and Real were nowhere to be seen. With doubts planted inside the boardroom, Real were unwilling to risk getting caught up in the affair and so gave it all - including De Gea - a big swerve.
But for the keeper, it's not just the lack of faith shown by Real which is concerning. The regular stories of Zinedine Zidane's support of Keylor Navas is also getting back to him.
De Gea can understand Zizou publicly backing his No1. He'd expect nothing less. But he's also hearing from inside the Real locker room that Zidane is fully behind the Costa Rican and has told his president there is no reason to upset the balance of his squad with De Gea's signing. And this is nothing just recent. Zidane's opinion has held steadfast since the closing months of last season. He regards Keylor, for all his inconsistency this campaign, the superior keeper.
Of course, De Gea endured a similar situation during the Louis van Gaal reign. Upon arrival, among the first things on the abrasive Dutchman's agenda was a plan to bomb out De Gea and replace him with... Keylor, who back in 2014 was still playing for Levante.
It was only the intervention of United's vice-chairman exec, Ed Woodward, which prevented De Gea from being moved on. But the plan did make its way to the player, who never forgave Van Gaal for his initial doubts.
The idea that De Gea is prepared to put himself through such an experience again, working for a manager who is near hostile towards his presence, just doesn't wash. Particularly when at United he's playing for a boss who not only appreciates him, but has gone out of his way to install staff to De Gea's liking - including his former mentor at Atletico Madrid, Emilio Alvarez.
"The only thing that is real is that he is my player, I am happy with him," Mourinho stated before United's win over Watford on Saturday. "I know that he is happy with me and there is nothing else. Absolutely nothing else.''
And unless Florentino abandons tradition and actually recognises more needs to be done from Real's side to assure De Gea of what awaits him, "nothing else", as Mourinho says, sounds just about right as far as this transfer saga goes.