Real Madrid To Increase Luka Modric Bid, According To ... Aww Darn It

I just went to ESPN Soccernet and saw this headline:

Real to increase Modric bid

ESPN had the Podolski incident recently and they have some writers who aren't terribly credible, but they're at least much better than the Mail, Mirror, Sun, etc. You can do a lot worse. Usually when ESPN prints something like this, depending on who writes it, it's not total junk.

According to their story, Madrid are increasing their bid for Modric to £33m, which still falls short of Daniel Levy's asking price. But if they're willing to pay that as a set fee, with some escalators and a Nuri Sahin loan included, that's not a bad deal. Levy can take that deal without looking like he's backed down. He's not going to look weak and it's not going to hurt him in future negotiations. It also comes with a gift-wrapped replacement for a year, so that money can go towards a couple of strikers and/or a rainy day fund. This is a decent deal.

And then I saw the byline.

By Harry Harris, Football Correspondent

DAMN IT ALL TO HELL.