Manchester United finally got their man last night after agreeing a world-record transfer fee for a defender of £30m with Leeds for their England centre-half Rio Ferdinand.
The 23-year-old is due at United's Carrington training complex this morning to undertake a medical and discuss personal terms before completing the move. A five-year contract worth around £70,000 a week is believed to be on offer, with both clubs hoping to announce the conclusion of the deal to the stock market later today.
Fittingly enough, United's quartet of England World Cup players, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Wes Brown - who played a significant role in convincing Ferdinand to leave Elland Road - are also due back for pre-season training today. Despite their efforts, it still took a week of brinkmanship and a weekend of frantic telephone negotiations between the United chief executive Peter Kenyon and the Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale before a fee was settled yesterday.
The move concludes Sir Alex Ferguson's long-running pursuit of Ferdinand, which began before the World Cup finals and prompted two formal bids from Old Trafford and a transfer request from the player, all of which were rejected by Ridsdale.
However, Ferdinand was allowed to miss his club's pre-season tour of the Far East and Australia and, with the Leeds plc board anxious to eat into the club's £77m debts, an improved offer of £30m - beat ing the £28.1m British record fee paid by United for Juan Sebastian Veron last summer - proved too tempting to refuse. Once the formalities are completed, the centre-half is expected to make his United debut in the Amsterdam tournament early next month.
"I'm satisfied I've done the best job possible for Leeds United," insisted Ridsdale yesterday, having come in for stinging criticism from some elements of the club's support. "For our shareholders it's a great deal, though a lot of Leeds supporters may disagree. I think we got the best price we could for Rio and, if you invest £18m in a player and get £30m for him some 20 months down the line, you've done a good job - especially if the player says he doesn't want to play for you again.
"I didn't want to sell Rio Ferdinand to Manchester United but, at the end of the day, they were the only club to come in for him. He put in a transfer request and said they were the only club he was interested in speaking to.
"Since I came here no club has invested more, so we're hardly a selling club. Of course Rio's a quality player who will fit in well in any team. He's a great player, a nice lad and I'm sad he's leaving, but he goes with our best wishes. This puts us in a very strong financial position to strengthen our squad and we'll spend the money wisely."
Ridsdale has spoken briefly with his new manager Terry Venables, who is on a working holiday in the Seychelles, to discuss a "wish-list" of players in which to re-invest around £15m of the Ferdinand fee. Those are thought to include the former United centre-half Jaap Stam, Middlesbrough's Gareth Southgate, Roberto Ayala of Valencia, Feyenoord's Australian international Brett Emerton and the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Darren Anderton.
"Terry and I have agreed a list and I will be working hard for the rest of this week to try and bring those players in," added Ridsdale, on holiday in the south of France. "I've already talked to a few of the clubs involved. I'm confident that the Leeds fans will be excited at the players who'll make up our squad."
