Leeds have agreed an £8.3 million fee with Lens for 25-year-old midfielder Olivier Dacourt. The former Everton star, who passed an Elland Road medical last week, has agreed a five-year deal with his advisers.
He will complete signing formalities on the deal upon his return from holiday. Dacourt left Goodison Park in June last year in a £6.5 million deal with the former French champions. Dacourt's transfer was another of football's most badly kept secrets.
The French player, who had also been linked with Arsenal, comes fresh from helping Lens to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup, where they were beaten by the Gunners.
The signing of Dacourt has shattered Leeds' record transfer fee of £5 million, paid to Sunderland last summer for Michael Bridges. And it comes just days after Leeds manager David O'Leary, who watched his side scrape into the Champions League by drawing at West Ham on Sunday, strongly hinted at Dacourt's arrival.
"I have to try and improve the quality of the squad, but it's going to take time," O'Leary said.
"At Manchester United it's taken Alex Ferguson 13 years, but for the £6 million I've spent (transfers in against transfers out) I don't think I've done a bad job."
Teddy Sheringham may yet remain at Manchester United after Alex Ferguson made a personal plea for him to stay saying he would not buy any strikers this summer if Sheringham agreed to the club's offer of a new one-year contract.
The British government have warned English football fans that anyone caught causing trouble at Euro 2000 will receive a 10-year ban from following any English club in Europe.
