Le Havre reported United to FIFA claiming that they had agreed a contract with the midfielder which was due to come into effect at the start of the 09/10 campaign.

Le Havre also dragged United’s good name through the mud, slinging accusations of bribery our way, however, no report was made to FIFA over these allegations; presumably because the allegations were unfounded.

A judge, appointed to the case by FIFA, ruled that Le Havre couldn’t possibly have any such agreement in place due to the players young age. The ruling clears United of any wrong doing and Pogba may now be registered as a United player with immediate effect.

A club spokesman told ManUtd.com: “Manchester United is pleased to confirm that the Football Association has been authorised by FIFA to register Paul Pogba as a United player with immediate effect.”

Le Havre do have the right to an appeal but given the clarity of FIFA’s ruling, without new evidence, any appeal would almost certainly fail.

Wayne Rooney cost £30 odd million, so did Berba and I think it’s safe to say any club with the cash would pay £30 million for Cristiano Ronaldo. £30 million sounds like a lot of money to you and I but to a club like United, it is the ‘going rate’ for top quality players.

Make no mistake about it; Carlos Tevez is a top quality player.

There are plenty of technically great footballers. There are also a lot of footballers with a work ethic second to none. There are very few however who possess both of these qualities and when they do come about, you simply cannot pass them up for something as trivial as money.

I suspected a while ago that United were holding out on signing Tevez permanently in an effort to further increase the players efforts and based on his recent performances, I still think that.

Ferguson has notoriously chased the holy grail of four top quality strikers. With Ronaldo in the team, he’ll be happy with three. And that is exactly what he has got now. If Tevez leaves, who will fill his shoes? Danny Welbeck is certainly not ready for 30 games a season and a replacement of Tevez’s quality wont come cheap. No, getting rid of Tevez would be a mistake and an expensive one at that.

Carlos Tevez epitomises Manchester United and he wants to stay. Alex Ferguson wants him to stay; I want him to stay and I’ll even bet you want him to stay. Don’t you?

20 year old former Stoke City defender, Ritchie De Laet, signed for the champions yesterday on a three year performance related deal.

Ritchie De Laet is a left sided defender who is also comfortable on the wing. United already have the impressive Patrice Evra on the left and with Fabio also ready to battle for position, it looks almost certain De Laet will take up his place in the Reserves for the remainder of the season.

Ritchie De Laet signed for Stoke in July 2007 from Royal Antwerp for just £100,00 but never made a first team appearance. He was loaned out to Wrexham where he impressed in three matches; his debut coming in a 2 – 0 win over Lewes before his loan was terminated due to illness.

I don’t really know much about this kid, so watch this space….have you seen him before? Is he a good signing?

Tell us what you know!

As previously reported, Tosic will join up with the rest of the squad next week with Ljajic remaining with Partizan until the end of the year. Tosic, at just 21 is considered to be one of the best wide players in Europe although some have questioned whether he would be able to handle the physical nature of the Premier League. Having not played since December 10th, Ferguson expects it to be at least a month until the youngster is ready for action but believes he will be more than ready to make the step up.

“The boy has some very good attributes,” Ferguson said. “He has a good understanding of the game itself and a decent goalscoring record. He has scored quite a few goals from free-kicks as well, so we just need to give him time to develop.”

Alex Ferguson revealed the arrival of Tosic should mean the end of Wayne Rooney’s days out on the left allowing the England International to play in his favoured role through the middle.

He said: “There is no harm in having three or four wide players given the pace of our game. We don’t consider Ryan (Giggs) a wide player now, which leaves us with Park Ji-sung, Nani and Cristiano Ronaldo. We have tried Wayne Rooney there and we played Darren Fletcher wide right. But in terms of natural width Zoran is a natural.”

Tosic is in the country for a medical with the champions before his transfer is completed when the window opens in January. Tosic was granted a work permit in late November and it was suspected that he and Ljajic would both be moving to Manchester in the January transfer window despite United claiming there were no developments in the proposed move.

It has been reported in Serbia that Ljajic , 17, is also over for a medical but that he wont be joining the Champions in January and will instead continue to play for Partizan Belgrade at least until the end of the current season and perhaps even next season. With Manchester United in no short supply of attacking options, it makes sense to let the highly rated youngster continue his development with regular first team football which will no doubt be hard to come by at Old Trafford.

“I was in Manchester once as a guest,” said Ljajic.

“I had a chance to look at how things are going on in a big club and now I will have another look.

“I’m staying in Partizan at least until the end of the season and then we will see what happens.”

Ljajic scored his first goal for Partizan on 23rd November with a spectacular long range effort. See the video, it’s the fourth Partizan goal (on 1 minute 6 seconds). Partizan coach Slavisa Jokanovic said: “Ljajic is an exceptionally talented player but he has a lot of room to improve and must work hard if he is to fulfil his potential”.

That’s Ljajic sorted, but what about Tosic? With the move looking set for January, you would have to conclude that Ferguson feels the youngster is ready for action and he will be given a role to play in the second half of the season.

Quoted in Tuttosport, Anderson reportedly said: “I am thinking about playing in Italy, Italian football is the best in the world and the most intelligent. Every player wants to play in Serie A, because Italians are the masters of football.

I really like Inter. I have always liked them from when Ronaldo played there. [Massimo] Moratti has always assembled great teams and Inter can win anything with the players they have.

“I will not hide myself and in future I would love to play for Mourinho at Inter. My dream is to be coached by Mourinho.”

That last statement is sure to go strike a chord with United fans and the staff at Old Trafford particularly given the rivalry most Reds fans feel towards Mourinho after his 3 years with Chelsea.

Tosic wasn’t eligible for an automatic work permit as he hasn’t played in at least 75% of Serbia’s International matches, however players considered to have “exceptional talent” are exempt from this ruling and it is this that saw the young midfielder granted the permit.

The transfer has not been finalised yet as no deal can be done until January but it now looks certain Tosic will hook up with International team mate Nemanja Vidic at United when the transfer window reopens. Various transfer fees have been banded about with the majority of media sources claiming United will pay somewhere in the region of £8 million for the player.

So who is Zoran Tosic?

Tosic was born in Yugoslavia on 28th April 1987 and has played in over 100 games already for club and country. Tosic started out as a central midfielder for local side FK Banat Zrenjanin and back then, there was little excitement surrounding his future. In 2006 his coach switched him to the left of midfield and it was only then people began to sit up and take notice. In 2007/08 Tosic was signed by Superliga rivals Partizan and he made 36 appearances in his debut season scoring 9 goals. This season the winger has so far made 21 appearances and already equalled his goal tally of 9 for the previous season.

Tosic’s debut for Serbia’s under 21s came on 23rd March 2007 which was shortly followed by his first senior call-up just 5 months later on 31st August 2007 for Serbia’s Euro 2008 qualifiers. He made his debut on 8th September 2007 in a goalless draw in a match against Finland coming off the bench in the 53rd minute.

Tosic has been touted as a successor to Ryan Giggs and has been described as being “lightning quick, technically gifted, and he strikes a dead-ball with such precision”. However with Ronaldo in the team, I shouldn’t imagine he’ll get to take many! Before you get too excited, don’t forget Kieran Richardson was once considered to be a natural successor to Ryan Giggs and look how that ended up!

Check out this video of Zoran Tosic and fellow teammate Adem Ljajic; another player with potential also reportedly on his way to Old Trafford. Club officials have remained quiet on the Ljajic front however, claiming their have been no developments.

For more Zoran Tosic videos, check out our archive.

Beckham will officially become part of Milan’s playing squad in January but he will meet up with his teammates and begin training in December. Beckham is still contracted to LA Galaxy but in a bid to keep his fitness levels and be considered for England duty has opted to move to Serie A even if only for two months.

“He is coming in January and I think when he comes here, he will see what Milan is,” Kaka told Sky Sports News. “I think will want to stay a bit more, until the end of the season and who knows after that.”

Kaka is in England with Milan preparing for a UEFA cup clash with Portsmouth and whilst he proclaimed Beckham would want to stay, he also pointed out that one day, he wants to leave:

“I like very much the Premier League,” he said.

“It’s a very tough championship, but there are a lot of big players and a lot of big teams, so now I think it’s the best championship in the world.

“So, one day maybe, I don’t know when, but it would be great to play in England.”

So where would he go? I don’t imagine United would go in for him and I doubt Liverpool or Arsenal could afford him. Arsenal probably could but Arsene Wenger simply wouldn’t pay the money asked. That said, who knows if he’ll be managing Arsenal next season. Even Arsenal fans are beginning to ask questions.

With 3 of the big 4 rules out, that just leaves Chelsea who I am sure would love to sign Kaka but even more scary perhaps is the prospect of Kaka joining up with his national teammates down the road at City.

When asked about the prospect of joining Manchester City Kaka said: “I have a lot of friends that are playing there, so I watch some games. I speak with Robinho and Elano sometimes about Manchester City.”

A spokesman for the club today reiterated this stance: “David Gill told the papers in South Africa in July that we would hope to conclude a deal with Carlos before the new year. That is still our aim. The clocks haven’t even gone back yet, so to talk of delays is nonsense. Both the club and Carlos are relaxed about the situation.”

Of course the club are bound to deny any hold up but one can only wonder if there is any truth to these stories. Rumours have been lingering that Tevez is unhappy that the club have not yet made him an offer to extend his stay and with the arrival of Berbatov, is Tevez going to spend most of his time on the sidelines?

Tevez was arguably United’s best player in what was a slow start to the campaign and was rewarded for his efforts by being dropped. It is starting to look like there will be space for either Rooney or Tevez in the starting line up – not both. And with Fergie seemingly unable to drop Rooney (admittedly, his form has improved a lot), will Carlos always be an impact player at Old Trafford?

At 23 years old, Tevez is not going to be happy about that. As much as he states he wants to play for United, he’ll look elsewhere before committing to 4 years on the bench. And another thing, isn’t £30 million a heck of a lot to pay for a substitute?

At little after half eleven on Monday 1st September, the club announced on manutd.com:
“Manchester United are delighted to announce the signing of Dimitar Berbatov. The Bulgarian international striker, 27, has signed a four-year contract after joining from Tottenham Hotspur for an undisclosed fee.”

Manchester United had previously refused to meet Tottenham’s £30 million valuation of the player with reports initially claiming United were only prepared to pay £25 million and later even up to £28 million. Spurs indicated £30 million or nothing so it was a case of who would crumble first. United ended up paying a reported £30.75 million; a real coup for the bargaining men at Old Trafford. Spurs also agreed to drop the complaint over United’s pursuit of Berbatov and to seal the deal, it looks like Fraizer Campbell is going on a season long loan to White Hart Lane.

United lost bargaining power when Manchester City entered the equation with a £30 million plus offer. There were even reports of Real Madrid making a “record breaking offer” but that never materialised. In a bizarre twist, Manchester City have a new owner, someone from the ruling family of Abu Dhabi no less; a man with more money than Abramovich. City unsuccessfully tried to hijack United’s move for Berbatov whilst also bidding £32.5 million for Real Madrid’s Robinho in an attempt to steal the forward from under the noses of Chelsea. Unfortunately for Chelsea, their bid was successful and Robinho will now be strutting his stuff at the City of Manchester Stadium this season. Unbelievable I know.

Fraizer Campbell’s loan spell in North London should prove a great opportunity for the 20 year old Striker. Tottenham had only Darren Bent and new boy Roman Pavlyuchenko up front before the arrival of Campbell so the youngster has plenty of opportunity to show what he can do.

Speaking to manutd.com, Dimitar Berbatov said “Joining Manchester United is a dream come true for me. I look forward to playing my part in helping this club win more honours in the years to come.”

Sir Alex Ferguson was delighted to have finally gotten his man and said: “This is a key signing. Dimitar is one of the best and most exciting strikers in world football. His style and ability will give the team a different dimension and I’m sure he will be a popular player with the fans.”

Dimitar Berbatov scored 46 goals in 102 appearances for Tottenham and fee aside, could prove to be vital in the team’s defence of both the Premier League and Champions League titles.

With the news that Cristiano Ronaldo is ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation it wont be long till United unleash a deadly strike force; Ronaldo, Rooney, Berbatov and Tevez. I see plenty of goals at Old Trafford this season.