London: Tottenham have offered to make Luka Modric their first 100,000-Pounds-a-week player in a new contract that would tie him to the club until 2017.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy opened talks two weeks ago over a new deal for the Croatian midfielder and has now offered a basic salary of 90,000-Pounds-a-week, twice his current 45,000-Pounds weekly salary.
That alone would smash the club's wage structure and make him the top earner, but performance-related clauses in the contract offer could take the 26-year-old's wages to in excess of 100,000-Pounds-a-week.
Modric is believed to be close to accepting the deal but a sticking point is the Spurs' desire to extend Modric's contract by a year to 2017. His current deal is due to expire in 2016 after he signed a six-year contract last summer.
"There is a bit of work to do but it looks like Luka will sign the new contract," a White Hart Lane source told Goal.com. "He's happy again playing for the club and has put the summer speculation behind him."
"In an ideal world, the club want to agree more than just a pay rise and are looking to get a one-year extension out of him."
The talks between Tottenham and Modric's representatives come after the club rejected repeated attempts by Chelsea - which culminated in a 40 million Pounds bid - to sign the wantaway midfielder over the summer. Modric claimed at the time that money was not his motivation for pushing for a switch across London despite the 130,000-Pounds-a-week contract on offer from the Blues.
Levy stuck to his stance that Modric would not be sold "at any price" but agreed to re-evaluate his deal once the transfer window closed, accepting the player deserves to be paid a salary that reflects his ability and importance to the team.
Modric angered people within the club by trying to engineer a move to Chelsea by giving interviews in which he described his "dream" of moving to Stamford Bridge and questioned Tottenham's ambition.
He also accused Levy of breaking a "gentleman's agreement" to allow him to move to a bigger club. Spurs are adamant that no such agreement existed but have told Modric they will listen to offers next summer, should Harry Redknapp's side miss out on a top-four finish in the Premier League this season.
Modric claimed his head was not right when he tried to pull out of Tottenham's clash with Manchester City in August but has returned to his best form since the transfer window closed as Spurs have recorded four league wins in a row.
The former Dinamo Zagreb man, who cost Spurs 16.5m Pounds in the summer of 2008, played for Croatia in Friday's 2-0 defeat to Greece in their Euro 2012 qualifier.
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