Barcelona Star Backs Up Tata Over Bale Comments

Xavi has backed up Barcelona manager Tata Martino over his comments regarding Gareth Bale's transfer fee as Real Madrid come close to sealing a €100m deal for the Tottenham winger.

The deal for Bale to make the move to Spurs seemed to be near completion last week as the north London side came close to purchasing Brazilian midfielder Willian as a replacement, but the deal fell through as he chose a move to Chelsea instead.

The Wales international is still looking close to making the move to Madrid, which led Barca coach Tata to claim that the €100m fee would be disrespectful to the entire footballing world.

As UEFA continue to introduce their Financial Fair Play rules, it would appear that the fee for Bale goes against the body's hopes of making clubs more responsible with their spending.

And Xavi has commented that he believes Tata was right in his assertion that the fee is not a good step for football in general, though he insists that this is how the system works and the club accept that.

"What Tata Martino said about Bale is true, but that's the way the market is," he told AS.

Tata revealed his dissatisfaction with Tottenham's sale of Bale to Madrid by telling reporters: "The numbers of the Bale deal seem to me to be a lack of respect in general for the rest of world".

He added: "Bale is a good player, how they work out how to use him in their side is up to them."

Madrid's pursuit of Bale seriously stepped up after they missed out on Neymar, whom Barcelona paid in excess of €50m to join from Brazilian side Santos.

But the sale of Bale will certainly break the transfer record across the world, with Tottenham pained to lose the star who almost singlehandedly kept them in the fight for a top four spot last season.