Real Madrid hold the line on Valverde and Tchouameni as Man Utd circle a €100m price tag
Two weeks after the training-ground fight that landed Federico Valverde in hospital, Real Madrid's position on both midfielders is the same one they took the morning after: neither is for sale. Manchester United are still ringing.
Florentino Perez has told club intermediaries that Aurelien Tchouameni is not on the market at any price, with the club still expected to extend his contract beyond its current end. Valverde, the more obvious sale candidate in the days after the row, has been priced at €100 to €120 million, around £87 to £104 million, a band Madrid know the bidders cannot easily reach.
What actually happened in training
The fallout starts with two sessions in early May. Tempers boiled over at the end of training on a Wednesday, and on Thursday it escalated. Valverde left training and ended up at hospital. Real Madrid's medical staff later diagnosed him with cranioencephalic trauma. The club opened disciplinary proceedings against both players and fined them €500,000 each.
Valverde's own version of events flatly denied a fight. "At no point has my teammate hit me, nor have I hit him," he said in a public statement, claiming he had cut his forehead by accidentally striking a table during an argument and adding that the story had been "blown out of proportion." He missed the El Clasico on May 10, a 2-0 defeat in which Marcus Rashford's ninth-minute free-kick and a Ferran Torres finish handed Barcelona their 29th La Liga title.
Madrid's stance on Tchouameni
Perez's call has been the simplest part of the saga. Tchouameni is twenty-six, signed long-term, and seen inside the club as a pillar of the next cycle. The Frenchman has Premier League suitors and reportedly long-standing admirers at Stamford Bridge, but Madrid have not opened any door. Romano's reporting is consistent: not for sale, present and future plans.
The harder call is Valverde. Senior dressing-room voices have told club officials he should be moved on, according to multiple Madrid-side reports, viewing his role in the row as the bigger problem regardless of his own account. Perez is not moving on that pressure publicly, but the €100 million price tag is read in England as the price of starting the conversation, not closing it.
Why Man Utd's path is so narrow
United have two obstacles before they have to think about a fee. The first is Madrid's valuation. The second is Valverde himself. Sources close to the player have said his preference is to stay and fight for his place rather than leave under this cloud. He has not asked to go, has not signalled any willingness to listen, and has more than 370 appearances for the club he turned up at as a teenager.
PSG have been linked as an alternative destination if Madrid soften, and Arsenal have been mentioned around Tchouameni without traction. For now, the most likely outcome for both players is that they stay. United's interest is real and the price is reachable on paper, but it needs a player who wants the move, and at the moment they do not have one.
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