Dimitar Berbatov is expected to conclude one of the summer's longest running saga's by signing for Manchester United ahead of the midnight transfer deadline.
The Bulgaria international has made no secret of his desire to leave Tottenham and United boss Alex Ferguson wants the 27-year-old in his squad.
However, the deal has been halted by Spurs' refusal to bend on a €37million fee and their annoyance at United's pursuit of the former Bayer Leverkusen player.
For their part, United do not want to go beyond their own €30.7million valuation and have laughed off repeated attempts by Tottenham to hold them to ransom, not least by pushing interest from Barcelona, which was always sketchy at best.
The Old Trafford outfit have been tailing other targets, just in case the Berbatov deal did not go through. But now it seems their focus is solely on the sleek forward, who would provide the bulk and finesse required now injury-prone Louis Saha has left for Everton.
A deal would make sense for all parties. Aside from Berbatov getting the move he craves, the Champions League winners would get a player their early-season performances suggests they need, while Tottenham would get the troublesome star off their books.
Berbatov has won few friends at White Hart Lane for the way he has appeared to sulk during the last few weeks of the charade.
Once again he was deemed not to be in the right frame of mind to play in yesterday's draw at Chelsea.
Confirmation Spurs have signed Roman Pavlyuchenko from Spartak Moscow means the London outfit have the extra forward they wanted, while on-going pursuits of Vedran Corluka from Manchester City, plus Sergio Garcia and Diego Milito from Real Zaragoza, could see them committed to more spending, so Berbatov's departure would bring in funds to help balance the books.
Although no-one is prepared to say exactly if and how talks with United are progressing, it is thought contact was made in Monaco around the European draws and Super Cup encounter between the Red Devils and Zenit St Petersburg.
Certainly more optimistic opinions are coming from Old Trafford than they have for most of the summer, although the club remain cautious given the speed with which the whole deal must be processed once agreement is reached.
