Real Madrid on verge of deal for Roma striker Cassano

Real Madrid vice-president Emilio Butragueno has refused to rule out a January move for Roma striker Antonio Cassano.

It's understood Real representatives are locked in negotiations with Roma in Italy over a fee for the player, with his club seeking £4 million.

Butragueno said: "There is a lot of talk. Real Madrid is always being talked about in the press because it is an important club. Keane was another who everyone was sure would go to Madrid."

Whether it's in January or June, Real insiders are confident Cassano will be theirs. If Roma continue holding out for £4 million, then Real will seek to sign Cassano on a pre-contract in January, with his contract expiring at the end of this season.

However, negotiations are at such an advanced stage that it's believed Cassano will move to Madrid in the first week of January.

yeah cause thats what they need ...another striker...i love real madrid but these dicisions are just stupid ....i think they need to concentrate on getting the midfield strengthened and getting a big name in defence....they had a great striker in owen that was scoring everytime he got to play ....honestly i dont think its a managers fault madrid are doing so bad ...its all the head office's fault ....perez should fire himself for doing so poorly ...

lol 'fire himself' i agree Perez is slowly destroying and tarnishing Madrid's name.

Poor Florentino, leave him in peace! (If you didn't get the sarcasm, it was a joke, don't want harsh comments, hehe)

big name defender? samuel came and left ... and lets not get started bout woodgate.

real madrid are just a group of players with big egos. the last thing they need is another one. they need to sign somebody who's actually interested in playing football and not there to live off Perez and his money. the whole team (actually i shouldn't use the word team) is crap man. Their defence is just hopeless. I pity Casillas.

My grandmother was better than Samuel

Well said Yeekiat! I agree with you there!

its honestly a mistery on what or who can fix real at the moment...cassano is going to add to the problem i think ....hey why not throw in rio ferdinand while we are at it .....

Whoever comes in is gonna have problems getting on the pitch. I mean look at Owen, who is without a doubt Madrid's best striker in terms of goals per minute. Can someone please tell me why he's sitting on the bench? As a Liverpool fan, I'm gutted to see a former great sitting on somebody else's bench! Ronaldo, Zidane, Beckham, and Raul just won't sit on the bench. There's no way they are gonna stay there if they are fit at all. Add in Casillas as the keeper and you already have five slots filled. So instead of being able to choose 11 players, u choose six every game. Tell me what sort of team is that.

Please get Ronaldo off the pitch. He just made a complete fool of himself against Santander. Crouch may not be the most prolific scorer around but he's way ahead of Ronaldo in terms of committment.

and thanks jamieg!

First of all, is funny that you compare Ronaldo with Crocuh, really funny indeed.
And, Michael Owen only scored when he came out from the bench, I don't know what happened but he and Solari didn't score when they were since the beginning in the pitch.

Well it doesnt do alot for your confidence knowing that your starting every game on the bench and have no idead when the boss will actually start you in a game.

I'm comparing Ronaldo and Crouch because Ronaldo no longer demonstrates that hunger to win things. Look at the game against Santander, he looked like a shadow of himself. And I already admitted Crouch is not as prolific as Ronaldo but the thing is he tries. He runs after balls, try his best to win headers, and tries his best to get his teammates to play. Ronaldo didn't look interested at all in the game.

That is your opinion. I don't think so. Ronaldo came to Madrid because he wanna win trophies, and he has helped the team with his goals. If he wasn't interested, he wouldn't play.

ok ...comparing ronaldo with crouch not right...ronaldo was a footballer of the year once...something crouch will never do....but i do agree on the fact that he wasnt trying hard ...but he is the kind of player that could be sleeping all game and you wake him up for 4 minutes and he'll score 2 goals ....lol....thats ronaldo for you ...you get the good with the bad...its allways been his story ...crouch is trying all game poor guy and nothing...honestly raul is playing because he has become untouchable in madrid ...the fans will go crazy if he gets benched ...and they payed too much for zidane and becks to sit them ....and you know they wont stand for that ....i would like to see some new blood injected in that team in terms of leaders ...maybe try to let baptista run the show for a while ....

Comparing Ronaldo with Crouch? That's gotta be the insult of the year
But I do want Ronaldo on the bench for a while, to let Raul, Julio Baptista and Robinho shine. And when Cicinho comes, put Beckham next to Ronaldo on the bench.

Afrinux, I'm a bit confused about you saying that when Cicinho arrives to put Beckham on the bench? Cicinho is a defender, Beckham is a midfielder, so this confuses me. Also, I need to say if you're so adamant on benching Beckham, I'd be interested in why you say that. One thing about him, he will play 100% for you for 90 minutes, and he showed that against Racing in Real’s most recent defeat. This can't be said about some of the other 'big names', and I have no problem mentioning Ronaldo here, his work rate was almost nil, it was as if he expected all the balls played to him to be put at his feet, he decided to start running at the end of the match. Robinho, the 'boy wonder' was removed at the half. Baptista didn’t enter until the 89th minute, and in my opinion he has yet to prove to be worth the money spent on him (time will tell though).

Also, the comparison that Yeekiat made between Ronaldo and Crouch has been taken out of context, he was speaking about the desire they show on the field as well as their work rate. One seems to show-up, the other seems to show-up to play. He was not talking about who's the better player skill wise.

And finally, Zidane continues to work his butt off as well, usually drawing 2 players to him because others are standing around being spectators instead of participators. Benching him would prove as well as solve nothing.

There is no easy fix to Real's troubles, and as we can see everyone has an opinion, and many don't see eye to eye as what needs to be done. But, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, Perez needs to go.......

oranjepalooza, I do know that Cicinho is a defender. But he is a cafu like. A defender who will do a lot in offense. And, since cicinho is an offensive defender and can do beckham's work , Real will be more balanced if they put Baptista in the middle as a skipper, instead of Beckham. And up front, Robinho and Raul.
Beckham may be playing 100% for 90 minutes, but he doesnt deliver that much. Try to look again at all real games this season. Especially the first game with Lyon during the CL first round. He was wasting lots of good balls.
As for Zidane, I am completely with you. I didnt mention putting him on the bench.

Regarding the comparison that Yeekiat made between Ronaldo and Crouch, thanks for clarifying things up .

100% with you.

Thanks for clarifying things on the Crouch-Ronaldo comparison.

There is no quick fix to Real's problems. In fact all these problems began in Real's first trophyless season. But over the past few seasons, instead of fixing things, they have been making them worse. The big names wouldn't want to sit on the bench. That itself is a problem for the manager. They can change the manager a million times but they won't solve problems unless the so-called galacticos are willing to put down their egos and start to play like a team and behave like a team.

They haven't won a trophy since Beckham arrived, isn't that correct?