Real Madrid seem prepared to give up on the most talked about transfer of the summer with their attention switching from Patrick Vieira to Xabi Alonso.

President Perez is now ready to abandon attempts to sign Vieira and move once again for Real Sociadad midfielder Xabi Alonso.

The prospect of Xabi moving to Madrid has been the source of much speculation in Spain in recent months, but Sociedad’s 24m Euro asking price initially deterred Madrid. However, with Vieira set to stay at Highbury, Xabi Alonso has emerged as the most likely alternative. After recently signing Mikel Arteta from Rangers, Sociedad could be willing to listen to offers for the Spanish international.

Madrid president Florentino Perez has already missed out on two if his summer targets, with Emerson and Ricardo Carvalho moving to Juventus and Chelsea respectively, and a third failure would be not go down well in the Spanish capital.

As reported in Spanish sports daily ‘Sport’, Madrid would do business if Sociedad were willing to lower their asking price to 12m Euros.