Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, is expected to turn his attention to Leighton Baines, Everton’s England left back, after completing a £12 million deal that could be worth as much as £17 million for Shinji Kagawa, the Borussia Dortmund playmaker.
United said yesterday that terms for the 23-year-old Japan midfielder’s transfer had been agreed with the club and the player. The move will be completed this month, subject to Kagawa passing a medical and obtaining a work permit. A club statement yesterday morning said that this was expected to be completed by the end of June.
Capturing Kagawa, signed by Dortmund for just £280,000 from Cerezo Osaka in 2010, will go some way to assuaging Ferguson’s disappointment at missing out on Eden Hazard, the Belgium midfielder, who elected to join Chelsea from Lille for £32 million in a deal worth £170,000 a week, on the grounds that the Champions League winners represented “a better project”. The United manager will take solace that Kagawa is not only a substantially more economical purchase, but will add the creativity, guile and goals from midfield that United have lacked for so long.
Kagawa was named in the Bundesliga team of the season after a debut campaign in which he scored eight goals in 18 games and helped Dortmund to win the league championship. He doubled his tally in his second, and last, season at Signal Iduna Park as Jürgen Klopp’s team retained their title and added the German Cup to complete the double. Kagawa scored one goal and created another in the final last month, a 5-2 win against Bayern Munich attended by Ferguson.
Ferguson is unlikely to be finished there, though. He is expected to crystallise his interest in Baines, who will travel today with Roy Hodgson’s squad to Cracow for the European Championship finals. A deal is unlikely before England’s involvement comes to an end. United have yet to make any formal contact with Everton, but it is believed Baines would be willing to contemplate a move to Old Trafford.
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He has emerged as one of the finest left backs in the country in recent years and Everton’s financial position means that David Moyes, the manager, would be forced to consider an offer of about £15 million.
Paul Pogba, the 19-year-old United midfield prodigy, was reported to be in Turin yesterday to discuss a transfer to Juventus.
• Ian Ayre, the Liverpool managing director, has called Dave Whelan, the Wigan Athletic chairman, a “comedian” and claims he conducted a “sideshow” during the Merseyside club’s recent search for a manager. Whelan gave Roberto Martínez, his manager, permission to speak to Liverpool but Brendan Rodgers, of Swansea City, was appointed and Ayre said: “I thought John Bishop was the biggest comedian in the North West, but Dave Whelan seems to have taken that mantle over.”