Manchester United made space in their squad and their wage bill to sign Tottenham's Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov by allowing injury-plagued Frenchman Louis Saha to join Everton on August 29, British media reported.
Saha's departure and the transfer of fellow Frenchman Mikaël Silvestre to Arsenal earlier in the week, has freed £100 000 a week, UK broadsheet The Guardian reported, but should United fail in their pursuit of the Bulgarian, they will be left dangerously short up front.
In the absence of Christiano Ronaldo, who is injured, United's deficiencies in attack were exposed in the European Super Cup match again Zenit St Petersburg, which the English champions lost 1-2. For most of the match, its forward line, with the notable exception of Carlos Tevez, often looked woefully out of sorts.
In the aftermath, asked about whether any progress was made in signing Berbatov, United manager Alex Ferguson said: “I can’t tell you any news on that because I have been with the team today and I don’t know what has gone on. And that’s all I have to say.”
The two clubs are believed to have reached verbal agreement on the issue, but wrinkles still need to be ironed out, while Tottenham still need to wrap up the deal taking Russian forward Roman Pavlyuchenko to White Hart Lane, The Times reported. It was not immediately clear whether United were ready to meet Spurs' £30 million valuation of Berbatov, however.
The London club would prefer to sign a second striker as well, replacing Robbie Keane who left for Liverpool earlier in August, but their summer-long quest to sign Zenit's Andrei Arshavin now looks over. "The board have said that the deal is closed. They [Tottenham] had seven weeks to buy him but the truth is that they have never bid the £22 million that we wanted," Zenit manager Dick Advocaat was quoted as saying by The Guardian. "They offered only £16 million. A player of Arshavin's quality is worth more than that."
Spurs sporting director Damien Comolli, talking to Sky Sports News, would not rule Berbatov staying at White Hart Lane. "He's a very good player and, as Juande [Ramos] has said many times, we're delighted he's with us," he said. "I don't really want to comment about speculation, but we just hope he's going to stay."
Berbatov himself, it seems, has no doubts left that his "dream" move to Old Trafford will finally materialise and has been seen shaking hands and bidding his goodbyes to erstwhile teammates and Spurs staff in training on August 29, reports said.
He has also been left out of Tottenham's extended squad for the next match with Chelsea on August 31 and The Times believe Berbatov and agent Emil Danchev will travel to Manchester at some point to finalise the deal.
Berbatov has only appeared as a second-half substitute in Tottenham's opening league match, a 1-2 defeat to Middlesbrough, and was left out of last week's clash with Sunderland, which Spurs also lost 1-2, because he was not focused enough.
In two years at Tottenham, which he joined in a £10.9 million deal from Bayer Leverkusen, Berbatov has scored 46 goals in 101 matches, including 27 in 69 league games, and helped
Spurs win the Carling Cup in February 2008, the club's first trophy in nine years.
His desire to play Champions League football, however, has been often cited as the main reason for seeking a move away from White Hart Lane and, after a more than a year of speculation linking him to United, he submitted a transfer request earlier in August.
