Dimitar Berbatov is expected to conclude one of the summer's longest running saga's by signing for Manchester United ahead of the midnight transfer deadline.
The Bulgaria international has made no secret of his desire to leave Tottenham and United boss Sir Alex Ferguson wants the 27-year-old in his squad.
However, the deal has been halted by Spurs' refusal to bend on a £30million fee and their annoyance at United's pursuit of the former Bayer Leverkusen player.
For their part, United do not want to go beyond their own £25million valuation and have laughed off repeated attempts by Tottenham to hold them to ransom, not least by pushing interest from Barcelona, which was always sketchy at best.
The Old Trafford outfit have been tailing other targets, just in case the Berbatov deal did not go through. But now it seems their focus is solely on the sleek forward, who would provide the bulk and finesse required now injury-prone Louis Saha has left for Everton.
A deal would make sense for all parties. Aside from Berbatov getting the move he craves, the Champions League winners would get a player their early-season performances suggests they need, while Tottenham would get the troublesome star off their books.
Berbatov has won few friends at White Hart Lane for the way he has appeared to sulk during the last few weeks of the charade.
Once again he was deemed not to be in the right frame of mind to play in yesterday's draw at Chelsea.
Confirmation Spurs have signed Roman Pavlyuchenko from Spartak Moscow means the London outfit have the extra forward they wanted, while on-going pursuits of Vedran Corluka from Manchester City, plus Sergio Garcia and Diego Milito from Real Zaragoza, could see them committed to more spending, so Berbatov's departure would bring in funds to help balance the books.
Although no-one is prepared to say exactly if and how talks with United are progressing, it is thought contact was made in Monaco around the European draws and Super Cup encounter between the Red Devils and Zenit St Petersburg.
Certainly more optimistic opinions are coming from Old Trafford than they have for most of the summer, although the club remain cautious given the speed with which the whole deal must be processed once agreement is reached.
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marconi1 ,,, well said chelsea have all the money and all the greedy players , swp, was not worth what they paid for him but he was a good player worked hard all the time even his father stated it was a bad move to chelsea , its a club who has no feelings but money ,and they have not won much seeing how much the russian as paid out , and yes it be great to see the other clubs up the top as it would make football richer in sport and not just money , ie pompey cardiff final its great to see , manu have a good way of looking after the players , and i wish all the poorer teams in all leagues the best for the season , and let football be the winner not who has the most money
Great news for spurs fans Man City tableing a bid in excess of £30.000.000 for Berbatov excellent deal if it go,s through stuff utd this is what dreams are made of 1-0 to the tottenham magic
It seems as though footie is about putting together the pieces similar to a puzzle really. For example if you'r a small club with limited finances you have to build a team that you can buy and can play together and bring out the best in each other. The other extreme is say Chelsea , they appear to have limitless funds and seem to want to buy everyone and try to shoehorn them in to a team . If the team doesn't perform well sell the players and buy more for example SW Phillips a good player, bought for £21 million kept for a couple of years and sold back to his original club for £9 million a loss of £ 12 million could Liverpool or Arsenal do that. Shaun isn't the only player that they've bought and sold over the last couple of years but no one seems to be too concerned at the loss. Then there's Man U . a mixture of old ,new some bought,some developed but costing nothing like chelsea and they won the double of league and European champions cup . Arsenal are not the giants of old but are still there and are playing better than ever, gone are the torrid, x rated defenders now some slick enjoyable football, so in summary you all know that its the correct spirit together with the pieces not hte cash that will win so come on Aston Villa, Sunderland et al join Man U. at the top.
Lads we're talking about the only significant team , treat it with respect, the followers of the also rans are listening. What if the manager was leading people on comeon we are United surely!
A good deal for you Mancs.............
You will not win anything unless you get a 20+ striker to help out Ronaldo
I disagree Roy, I think it won't go through until 2 or 3am so that the saga can drag on a bit, first with Spurs claiming we still own him as it didn't go through, then another 'charity donation' will be made by Man U so we'll concede, then the FA will say they won't count it, and eventually in October - after several appeals etc - he'll be officially made a Utd player.
if berbatov signed before super cup then united would of won
if he sings well win the prem the fa cup and the champions league
The deal will happen at 11.59:59 pm
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