Tottenham are resigned to losing Michael Carrick to Manchester United after the England midfielder rejected their final contract offer.
Spurs would have altered their wage-and-bonus structure to match the package offered by United but Carrick has made it clear he wants to move, pointing to the Old Trafford club's participation in the Champions League and their greater proximity to his family home in Newcastle as key attractions.
Tottenham's manager, Martin Jol, will not attempt any further to dissuade the midfielder, whose rejections of contract offers and declaration of intent to move to United are being regarded as tantamount to a transfer request that will cost him compensation for the remaining two years of his contract.
Jol allowed Pedro Mendes, Michael Brown and Sean Davis to leave in January and must now recruit a midfield replacement.
Spurs' chairman. Daniel Levy, will monitor negotiations for Ruud van Nistelrooy's departure from Old Trafford, which will have an immediate bearing on United's resources for the Carrick deal. United have bid £10 million for Carrick and do not wish to pay more than £12 million, but Spurs are expected to settle for a price around £17 million, which would weaken United in the transfer market.
Tottenham's attentions may turn to Pavel Nedved. The 33-year-old is close to Jol's agent Mino Raiola, who has strong contacts at Juventus and may secure the Czech for a nominal fee.
There was bad news for United yesterday, however, as Fernando Torres, the Spain striker earmarked by Alex Ferguson to replace Van Nistelrooy, insisted he has no intention to leave Atletico Madrid. The 22-year-old, capped 34 times and top scorer for each of the last four seasons at the club he supported as a child, had also attracted interest from Internazionale.
"I am here for the pre-season training schedule, just like last year, and I have no intention to leave," he said. "I want to stay here. There has been a lot of talking while I've been away on holiday about my possible departure and so much has been said about my future but the reality is that I'm here for another year.
"If I'd wanted to leave Atletico Madrid, I would have done it years ago.
"The fans haven't heard me say I want to leave, and I feel fine here. I repeat, if I had wanted to go I could have, because I've had offers. Manchester United and Inter are great teams; big clubs have come for me and they haven't made me change my mind. I'm an Atletico Madrid player, I have a contract to run and I hope to complete it."
Torres has two years to run on his current deal and, should no new contract be agreed over the next 12 months, Atletico would presumably be willing to listen to offers at the end of the coming season.
Ferguson, therefore, travelled to Glasgow for tonight's friendly against Celtic at Parkhead no nearer to securing a successor to Van Nistelrooy. Despite Real Madrid's offer having been knocked back, the Dutchman is attracting interest from Bayern Munich and is likely to move before the new season.
With the Carrick deal still to be finalised, United have failed to add to their squad this summer while Chelsea have spent lavishly on Andriy Shevchenko, Michael Ballack and John Obi Mikel.
Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur have also recruited heavily. Other United targets, such as the Lyon midfielder Mahamadou Diarra, have proved out of reach.
