Source: Daily_Mail
Hull set for £15m Real striker swoop! Negredo catches eye of the Tigers
Real Madrid striker Alvaro Negredo is ready to sign for Hull City for a club-record £15million.
The 23-year-old is deciding between the Tigers and Russian giants Zenit St Petersburg after Blackburn Rovers withdrew from the bidding and Madrid expect him to make a decision today.
'It has been four to six weeks since we first started speaking to Real Madrid but it is hard dealing with a club of that stature,' said Hull boss Phil Brown.
'In terms of European football they are number one, two or three.There are times when you think it is 95 per cent certain and thensomething happens and it's 50-50 again. But we're still working on it.In time for the Chelsea game on Saturday? I don't know.'
The La Liga giants will continue to monitor the striker and haveinsisted on a £21.5m buy-back clause, which could be triggered at anytime in the next two years.
Madrid would prefer him to test himself in England and Negredo is expected to choose the challenge of the Barclays Premier League over a more lucrative offer from Russia.
Zenit are understood to have offered Negredo £60,000 a week. His agent Alejandro Camano met Bernabeu director general Jorge Valdano to discuss the transfer yesterday after holding telephone conversations with Hull chairman Phil Duffen.
Madrid have never agreed to such a high buy-back clause but are reluctant sellers following Negredo's impressive season at Almeria last season.
His first-team opportunities would be limited at the Bernabeu this season and Madrid are desperate to raise £70m from player sales before the end of the transfer window after splurging more than £220m on a summer spending spree.
Negredo scored 19 in 35 appearances after signing for Almeria last summer, leading to Madrid to enact a £4.25m option to return him to the Bernabeu.
