REAL MADRID are ready to break the world transfer record with an audacious £85m swoop for Gareth Bale, as well as splashing out £40m on Luis Suarez. Combining the two Premier League stars with Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema would then give Madrid the world’s first quarter-billion-pound forward line.

Recruiting Bale and Suarez, who scored 44 Premier League goals between them last season, forms part of Florentino Perez’s campaign to be re-elected as Madrid’s president. Perez started his second term by signing Kaka and then Ronaldo for world-record transfer fees of £56m and £80m, before adding Benzema for a further £35m. Seeking to mitigate the fallout from Jose Mourinho’s decision to leave for Chelsea, the Spanish businessman has returned to a familiar strategy to secure