Spurs accept Man City’s Berbatov bid

Has the Dimitar Berbatov saga taken an outrageous turn? With the transfer window only hours from closing at midnight on Monday, Manchester City have had an audacious bid of more than £30m for the 27-year-old accepted by Tottenham Hotspur.

After Manchester United's long public courtship of Berbatov this summer, the City approach came out of the blue. Spurs would prefer to sell the wantaway Bulgarian to City, if only to thwart Man Utd, whose advances have not been welcome at White Hart Lane. But whether he would be prepared to play another season without Champions League football remains to be seen. In parallel with the Man City news, other sources were reporting that Berbatov was today greeted by Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester airport and has agreed personal terms at Old Trafford.

The City swoop came on the same day that a Dubai-based consortium took over the club from Thaksin Shinawatra, the controversial former Thai PM, and immediately promised to provide manager Mark Hughes with the funds for a big-name signing. Prospective new owner Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim also revealed he was bidding for Mario Gomez of Stuttgart and Valencia's David Villa. Spanish sources even suggest that City are after Robinho.

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FIRST POSTED SEPTEMBER 1, 2008