As the old saying goes, money talks and Cristiano Ronaldo is listening. The 23-year-old Portugese superstar finally ended his silence in an exclusive interview with respected Brazilian website Terra he is reported as stating: “I would like to play for Real Madrid but only if it is true they are ready to pay what Manchester United ask of them. However, it does not depend on me.”

Reports are that he wants to leave Man Utd for the £300,000-a-week wage packet being offered to him by Real Madrid. This despite the fact that Ronaldo signed a five-year contract extension with Manchester United last April, tying him to the club until the end of the 2011-12 season. The Real Madrid offer is double the wages he is currently making at Old Trafford.

In order for Ronaldo to join Real Madrid, United would first have to agree to sell him, but its plain to see that Madrid will need to break the bank to buy the Portuguese winger. Recent reports suggested Madrid would consider tabling a £150m offer to United for the services of the Portuguese star, who joined the English club from Sporting Lisbon in 2003. Madrid already holds the record for the biggest transfer fee in soccer history, paying Italian team Juventus £46m for the services of Zinedine Zidane in 2001. They would need to far exceed that to satisfy United.

The other possibility is of a cash + players deal, which would break apart a successful squad that captain Raul has urged the management to keep together. Players that have been mentioned as going as compensation are formidable talents like Sergio Ramos and Robinho.

There are plenty of reasons for these two superclubs to be fighting over the services of Ronaldo. He scored 42 goals in all competitions for United this season, helping the Red Devils claim its second consecutive Premier League title and to win the Champions League. He was named the top player in the English Premier League and is also the odds-on favourite to win the FIFA world player of the year award in December.

There are also rumblings that Barcelona are preparing to rival Real Madrid in the race to sign the Portuguese forward. The last time these two clubs fought over a player from Manchester United as back in 2006 when David Beckham was sold by United. United accepted a £25m bid from Barca before selling the midfielder to Real for the same fee. Beckham has no interest in joining Barcelona, as he felt he was being used as a political pawn by Joan Laporta. Laporta was campaigning to become Barcelona president and seemed to be using the Beckham signing as a way of upping his profile with the voters.

As Sid Lowe of the Guardian wrote this morning, Real Madrid president Ramón Calderón is still unpopular despite two successive titles and he has missed out on signing the players he promised to sign,like Cesc Fabregas and Kaká, during his presidential campaign. This could mean that despite the cost, financially or financially + players going to United, Calderón could be desperate to make a big statement.

Ronaldo has said that he will not speak of his future again until after the European Championships but expect the media to stir up a frenzy. A strong showing at Euro 2008 would only serve to drive up the price on Ronaldo, perhaps to the point where a deal is untenable.

I remain skeptical (this could just be a negotiating ploy for Ronaldo to up his United wages yet again) but it looks like my initial hunches about this were wrong.

The summer spending sprees will soon start but Tottenham have already started their work with one purchase and heavy rumours of a sale in the very near future. Tottenham manager Juande Ramos began his shopping early with the capture of young Croatian star Luka Modric and the £16 million splashed out on that deal is the first step in the summer overhaul of his current squad.

As reported by EPL Talk, Tottenham Hotspur launched their new kits for next season and quite noticeably absent was their best player, striker Dimitar Berbatov. This has only upped the speculation that he is going to be sold at the end of this season though I’m not sure it is even fair to call it speculation when both his current manager and the player and agent have all made statements that would indicate a move is in the works.

Berbatov has two years left on his current deal and talks to extend the deal have stalled. Tottenham do not want his contract to run into the last year, when the transfer fee would drop considerably. They would be faced with the prospect of losing him on a free transfer in 2010 when he would be just 29.

It would be foolish for Tottenham to sell Berbatov to another club in England. I saw him a few times before he arrived at Tottenham but once I got to see him on a regular basis, he made a huge impression on me. Berbatov has sniped 46 goals and created nearly as many since arriving at White Hart Lane. He has incredible footwork and vision, and is a complete player rather than just a goal-poacher. He often drops a bit deeper to help support the buildup play and can zip the ball around as well as any playmaking midfielder. However, he can also act as a lone target man and can also hold up the ball while waiting for teammates to support. Berbatov modelled himself first on Marco van Basten and later Alan Shearer. And while he has not quite reached the levels of those two, Berbatov has become one of the top strikers in Europe, at least in my opinion, though I am not alone on that front.

In speaking with The Times after a match between Wigan and Tottenham, Latics boss Steve Bruce was almost lost for words. Bruce saw plenty of world-class forwards in his days as a Manchester United defender but had the mercurial Bulgarian. “He’s sheer class,” Bruce said. “He makes it look so easy. He reminds me of a top, top player.” Bruce would not be drawn farther – “I’m not going there, I can already see the headlines,” he said – but the inference was clear. Berbatov reminded him of Old Trafford icon Eric Cantona who had a short fuse and played with his collar turned up.

He is the type of talent that could tip the balance of power among the “Big Four” in the Premier League. I think he’d best fit into either of the playing styles of Manchester United or Arsenal with United the most in need of a centre-forward. That said, it looks as if he will be moved abroad, which will be a loss for the Premier League.

The clubs being mentioned as suitors are AC Milan, Real Madrid and Barcelona. According to some reports that I’ve read, Tottenham would prefer to sell the player to Barcelona, with the overriding factor being a potential swap deal with Samuel Eto’o moving in the other direction. This would make a great deal of sense for both clubs and both players. Eto’o seems like he would be suited to the break-neck pace of the Premier League and while he has done very well in England, one can only imagine the beautiful goals Berbatov would score playing with the likes of Messi, Henry and Xavi. Eto’o who has made statements about leaving Barcelona has had a tumultuous relationship with the Barcelona hierarchy and coaching staff. Even in the past month he has made, and then retracted, statements about being unhappy with the lack of trophies in the past couple of seasons. Eto’o, also 27 years old, was quoted in late April as saying: “I’ve done it all in Spain, I’ve reached the heights here and so if I do leave I will go to another league.” He later clarified his statements to radio station Cadena SER and said the he intended to portray that he “would not feel comfortable playing in a team that signed me to score goals and to win, and I don’t manage it.” He said he “would not be able to look the fans in the face.”Barca’s rivals Real Madrid are unlikely to ignore the chance to go for Berbatov, though Tottenham may ask for Brazilian youngster Robinho plus cash from the current La Liga champions.

Berbatov is desperate to win trophies and also wants play in the Champions League while he is still in his prime. Tottenham are a full season away from the Champions League (at a minimum) and they will be entering a rebuilding phase this summer as Ramos looks to continue the changes he started in January. Both Barcelona and Madrid can assure Berbatov of that chance.

As for AC Milan, Berbatov has already spoken out about interest from the Italian outfit. In an interview in Bulgaria last month he said: “There is some interest on the part of the Italian club, that’s all I can say. I’ll be flattered to go to talks with them.” Much like Barcelona, Berbatov combining with Pirlo and Kaka could make for some ‘liquid football’.

Regardless of where Berbatov goes, the club look set to make a sizeable profit from the sale of the player as his stock has risen greatly after two excellent seasons at White Hart Lane. Spurs spent £10.9m to sign him from Bayer Leverkusen in 2006 and that has been one of the best buys of the last couple of seasons. Spurs should receive between £20 – 30m in value for the player depending on the package offered them. One would be very skeptical that they would get £20m + Eto’o or anything similar to that.

The sale would help to increase the transfer budget of Ramos. As other possible replacements for Berbatov, Tottenham have been linked with David Villa of Valencia. Ramos has also been linked with a raid on former club Sevilla for their 20-year-old left winger Diego Capel. Capel’s buy-out price was £9.5m but once he’d played 40 first-team games, a target he reached against Murcia last month, the price rose by £2m. According to what I’ve read, Spurs can apparently pay the fee directly to the Spanish league office and then begin direct negotiations with Capel and his agent without involving Sevilla.

Spurs are also expected to make another bid for midfielder Lassana Diarra, having lost out on him to Portsmouth during the January transfer window. There have also been rumblings about Birmingham’s Olivier Kapo making a move to London should the Blues be relegated.

One player who Ramos will definitely lose is 34 year-old Czech goalkeeper Radek Cerny, who recently announced that he will join Queens Park Rangers next season.