Manchester United look certain to complete the capture of Brazilian World Cup star Ronaldinho next week.
Old Trafford chief executive Peter Kenyon was involved in intensive negotiations with Paris St Germain officials today and is due to fly back to France next week in an effort to conclude the stg£11million deal.
Having finally admitted their current cash crisis will force them to sell their star man, PSG are now haggling over the small print of the deal.
And while United are keen to stress no fee has been agreed and delicate contract talks with Ronaldinho have not been concluded either, hopes are high that Sir Alex Ferguson's major summer transfer target will eventually be snared.
"There will be a completion one way or another next week," confirmed Ronaldinho's agent and brother Roberto Assis.
"Peter Kenyon and the PSG president Frances Graille had a meeting today to discuss the transfer and things are looking good.
"They are going to continue talks over the next few days."
With the transfer market having collapsed since Kenyon negotiated the British record stg£29.3million signing of Rio Ferdinand from Leeds 12 months ago, United are bound to drive a hard bargain even though they will have cash to spare providing the impending departure of David Beckham is finalised next week.
Although Barcelona, Real Madrid and Newcastle have all expressed an interest in the 23-year-old, whose freak goal sent England tumbling out of the World Cup last summer, United are in pole position because of the cash they can offer up front.
New PSG coach Vahid Halilhodzic today admitted his club were in no position to reject a sizeable fee, which will just leave Kenyon to meet with Assis next week to discuss the player's personal terms and image rights.
"Ronnie has another three years on his contract with us and when I arrived I said that he would not go and didn't see what could change my mind," he said. "But our economical situation is delicate and while I would be delighted to coach a player of that calibre, his agents want him to go.
"If we receive a huge offer we would have to think about it because if we remain in such a stalemate we will not have the opportunity to recruit anyone."
Providing talks proceed as hoped, United will expect to be in a position to unveil Ronaldinho soon after Beckham has made his own high-profile entrance at Real.
That will take the pressure off the Red Devils' hierarchy, who this week saw assistant boss Carlos Queiroz join Beckham at the Bernabeu and accept their hopes of signing Leeds winger Harry Kewell are almost certainly doomed.
They are also not believed to be in the running for Leeds keeper Paul Robinson, whose proposed move to Aston Villa collapsed earlier today, even though regular first choice Fabien Barthez was dropped towards the back end of last season.
Either way, the arrival of Ronaldinho in time for the high-profile four-match tour of the United States next month would give added impetus to Ferguson's demand for his team to compete more effectively in Europe, with the deal likely to be quickly followed by the arrivals of David Bellion from Sunderland, Nantes midfielder Eric Djemba Djemba and American goalkeeper Tim Howard, whose work permit situation still has to be ironed out.