Gareth Bale announced his arrival on the world stage with his performances against Internazionale this season. Photograph: Tom Hevezi/AP
Harry Redknapp has suggested it would take a world-record transfer fee to prise Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur in the summer after the Wales winger said that he was open to the prospect of a switch to a leading continental club.
Bale has been declared fit to face Real Madrid here in the Champions League quarter-final first-leg after hamstring trouble, and the Spanish team are one of those who covet him. Internazionale, the Italian champions, are chief among the others, although Bale would lean towards Spain for his big move.
Redknapp, however, has made it clear he would fight hard to keep his prized asset because cashing in would send the "wrong signals" and trigger the disintegration of what he has built at White Hart Lane.
"Manchester United sold Cristiano Ronaldo [to Real] but they got an offer of £80m," Redknapp said, highlighting the record fee. "He's Portuguese and this is more his lifestyle here than Manchester may have been. So in the end, it was good business. I'm sure it would have to be that kind of money for Bale. 
It would be an amazing figure if you ever sold him. But how do you replace a player like that? It's very difficult. We wouldn't be wanting to sell a player like Gareth Bale at this time, when we're trying to build the club."
Bale, who has catapulted himself to global prominence with his performances in this season's Champions League, agreed fresh terms on his White Hart Lane contract last month. His deal now runs until 2015. But his comments to the Spanish newspaper AS on the eve of his team's tie against Real were not what Tottenham's fans might have wanted to hear.
"You never know," Bale said, on the possibility of a move abroad, "but I'm not afraid to leave the country. If a great opportunity arises, you need to seriously consider it. I left home at 15. If I leave the Premier League, I'll learn another language, I'll know other people, another country. I will grow as a person. There aren't more British players abroad because the league is very strong but now yours [La Liga] has got Cristiano [Ronaldo], [Lionel] Messi…"
Redknapp said that the Tottenham chairman, Daniel Levy, would deal with the inquiries for Bale and it feels as though the 21-year-old's remark about needing to consider a great opportunity if it arose has added a new dynamic.
"Sure, players have the power," Redknapp said, "and the day that Gareth comes in and says that he wants to go, or the agent says that he wants to move on, there is very little you can do about it. But I don't see that happening. Maybe he just didn't want to sound unambitious. If people ask him whether he wants to play for one of the top European clubs one day, I am sure that he would. But I don't think he is ready to do that. He arrived at the airport today in Madrid and the press are swarming all over him. But he is still learning the game."
Redknapp has personal experience of the disarray that can result from when a club decides to sell their star players. "I had it at West Ham," he said. "We let Rio [Ferdinand] go and then Frank [Lampard] and the rest followed. If you are looking to build a club, you can't be selling Gareth as then [Luka] Modric wants to go and someone else wants to go. Then, you end up where the club was four to five years ago, finishing halfway up the table.
"I have not seen Gareth's quotes and I have not spoken to him about them. Agents will always turn players' heads. If someone is going to come along and offer millions of pounds to move him and he is going to get fantastic wages, it is difficult not to get their heads turned. But it is part of football."
José Mourinho, Real's manager, said that he had long known that Bale would become an "amazing player". But he added: "Tottenham buy well but they like to sell very, very well. So I think the amount of money involved [with Bale] is not easy to buy. We have players for that position. We have Cristiano [Ronaldo], Marcelo."
Tottenham have been boosted by the return to fitness of the central defender William Gallas, who is set to start, but a clutch of other injuries have left Redknapp to suggest that he will name only six substitutes. For Real, Ronaldo, Angel Di María and Marcelo have been declared fit while Kaká is set for a surprise return to the substitutes' bench.
"We are the big underdogs," Redknapp said. "I've said all along that the two Spanish teams are the favourites. But we are not just coming here to turn up. The dream is still there for us all and we want to make that dream come true. We want to go all the way."
