Big-name deals waiting to go down

By Gavin Hamilton and Nick Bidwell, Special to SI.com, World Soccer

With Florentino Pérez back, Real Madrid almost surely will land one of his preferred targets: Kaká (left) or Cristiano Ronaldo. AP

The summer transfer market is a few weeks away from opening and already the signs are that the global financial crisis is forcing clubs to rethink their annual spending.

"Ours will be a minimalist recruitment drive," says AC Milan boss Adriano Galliani. "Next year, we have decided to go with players who have yet to make the big jump in their careers. The global economic crisis will make sure that only a few clubs will spend big. I expect many more swaps than permanent deals."

Even many big deals could be killed. Manchester City, backed by Abu Dhabi's petro-dollars, can be expected to attempt a spending spree that at least matches the millions spent last summer on Brazil's Robinho. But without the lure of European football, the club may find the task of attracting A-list players to Eastlands more difficult than it first envisioned.

At the other end of the financial spectrum, Valencia -- with debts of nearly $1 billion -- is being forced to sell its biggest assets. But its desperation for cash could be its undoing this summer. Already, Liverpool manager Rafa Benítez has complained that negotiations to sign midfielder David Silva were hampered by his former club's eagerness to seal the deal.

"Someone was talking too much," said Benítez. "If we are going to look for someone we will not announce it to the press. We will try to do it properly and secretly."

Meanwhile, striker David Villa, Valencia's most bankable asset, is worried that a too-high asking price will deter potential suitors. "Valencia officials want [$85 million]," he says. "But I don't know if there are any clubs who are willing to sign me for such an amount."

Villa is still expected to move, though, to one of a handful of "super-clubs" that can afford Valencia's demands. It will be the actions of these clubs that dictate the summer transfer merry-go-round as cash trickles down from the top level of the European game.

At Real Madrid, former president Florentino Pérez reclaimed his old job after no other candidates stepped forward. Given the success Pérez enjoyed with his galáctico policy of signing the world's most marketable stars, he will be the favorite to win any contest for big-name players. Pérez was voted into power in 2000 after promising to bring Luís Figo from archrival Barcelona. He has made a similarly audacious pledge this time around, with speculation centering on the futures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká.

"Florentino Pérez can do anything he sets his mind to," says Ernesto Bronzetti, a leading agent who is close to Real. "He has the power to realize things in the transfer market which no one could imagine, from Kaká to Ronaldo. That said, Kaká is the one he wants more than any other."

Kaká rebuffed the ambitious advances of Manchester City in January, when Milan was prepared to accept a world-record offer for the Brazilian. A similarly extravagant fee would give Milan the funds to rebuild an aging side, but any deal would require Kaká's seal of approval. So far, the player has kept his counsel.

If Pérez and Madrid don't get their man, they are likely to go back for the player the club tried so hard to sign last summer: Ronaldo. After months of speculation, Ronaldo pledged his future -- at least for one more season -- to Manchester United in August 2008 after the club threatened to report the Spanish champions to FIFA. His comments were widely seen at the time as part of a deal that would see him play another season at Old Trafford before moving to Spain in '09.

United manager Alex Ferguson has continued to angrily rebuff reports from Madrid that his star turn will be leaving, dismissing the latest speculation as "pathetic." United has been linked with Bayern Munich's French winger Franck Ribéry, whose future at the Allianz Arena is in doubt after Jürgen Klinsmann's ignominious exit.

Bayern paid a club-record fee to sign World Cup star Ribéry from Marseille in the summer of '07. He won a string of personal awards and helped inspire the club's league title win last season. But his start to this season was delayed by an injury picked up during Euro 2008 and conflicting reports burgeoned over his future during the winter break.

Earlier this spring, Ribéry assured fans and officials that he intended to see through his contract, which runs until 2011. He said: "No one need have any worries that I will be leaving the Bundesliga. I am happy at Bayern, I like the fans and I believe they like me, too. It's never been a matter of money but about where I am happy playing my football."