Fergie: New Eric looks the part
After completing the final stage of his medical yesterday, the 23-year-old put pen to paper and signed a five-year contract, becoming Ferguson’s second signing of the week following the arrival of David Bellion on Tuesday.
“Eric is a young player we have watched throughout the season and he has impressed us each time.
In the last few months he has shown his development playing in a very good Cameroon team and he looks like a Manchester United player in every sense,” said Ferguson.
United have agreed an initial £3.5m fee, with a further £700,000 payable once he has made a set number of appearances. A combative midfielder in the Roy Keane mould, Djemba-Djemba might have to curb the physical approach which brought him 10 yellow cards and one red in his 28 league appearances last term.
He says one of his main strengths is his physicality, but believes that will prove to be less of a problem in England than it has been in France.
“My style of play is ideally suited to the Premiership. I am quite physical but I’m sure a lot of the yellow cards I got last season would have gone un-noticed in England,” said Djemba- Djemba.
“He is quick, aggressive and a good passer of the ball and is the kind of athletic footballer we are looking for,” said Ferguson.
Having returned to Manchester to conclude that deal, Red Devils chief executive Peter Kenyon has also continued discussions with Paris St Germain in his efforts to land major transfer target Ronaldinho.
PSG have already turned down one bid for the player and have also said Real Madrid are ready to make a massive offer, which would see Ronaldinho remain in the French capital on loan next season.
Meanwhile, Chelsea could be the mystery English club who, according to AC Milan, have submitted a bid worth £30million for their Italian international defender Alessandro Nesta.
The Blues are suddenly in the market for the best players in the world following the takeover by Russian oil billionaire Roman Abramovich.
The Italian club’s general manager, Adriano Galliani, said: “Yesterday I refused an offer of €50m for Nesta. The offer was made by an English club.”
Realistically, there are only two English clubs with the financial muscle to bid for player of Nesta’s worth - Manchester United and now Chelsea.
The arrival of Abramovich has elevated the Blues into a whole new area where buying power is concerned.
If Milan’s claim is genuine, and if Chelsea are indeed the English club who made a bid to sign Nesta, then it is a massive statement of intent from the Stamford Bridge club.
It is hard to see which other English club would have made such an offer for Nesta, with Arsenal having tightened their purse strings this summer and Liverpool and Newcastle having set their sights on more attacking players.
Leeds chairman John McKenzie will have to wait until next week to discover the fate of Harry Kewell.
Negotiations between McKenzie and Kewell’s agent Bernie Mandic are expected to take place before manager Peter Reid’s squad return for pre-season training on Wednesday.
The prospect of Kewell moving to Arsenal, though, who so far remain the only club to have made an official approach and who can offer Champions League football next season, has hit a stumbling block regarding the 24-year-old’s wage demands.
Mandic only recently stated any deal was not about money, but the Gunners are not prepared to break their salary structure to land the £7m-rated Australia winger.
Liverpool, who are among a number of clubs interested in Kewell according to Mandic, are being heralded as the new front-runners and seemingly willing to agree to the £60,000-£70,000 per-week apparently being demanded.
Barcelona may yet figure as they are known to be interested in Kewell and Mark Viduka, who has been linked with another three of Europe’s footballing giants.
Despite Leeds yet to receive an official approach from any club for the Australia international striker, Roma, AC Milan and Bayern Munich, along with Barca, are now chasing Viduka.
McKenzie has consistently stated this summer Viduka is the one player not for sale as the 27-year-old is the spearhead of manager Peter Reid’s plans for next season.
Yet Viduka’s representative, Andrea D’Amico, maintains negotiations have taken place with Barca, while Roma, AC and Bayern seemingly wait in the wings.
Should Patrick Kluivert leave the Nou Camp, with the Holland international believed to be in talks with Newcastle, then Viduka could subsequently become a firm target for Barcelona.
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