United clinch Obertan signing

MANCHESTER UNITED continued their rebuilding for the new season with the signing of winger Gabriel Obertan from Bordeaux yesterday.

The 20-year-old has agreed a four-year contract with the Barclays Premier League champions.

Obertan, a France U-21 international who can fill several attacking roles, will have to wait for his first-team bow, however, as an unspecified minor injury will keep him out of United’s forthcoming tour of the Far East. Reports in France have claimed Obertan will cost around £3 million.

“Gabriel is a player we have tracked for a few years now,” United manager Alex Ferguson said. “We are delighted to get him now as he is an exciting prospect. We like to get young players and develop them, and we will see that in Gabriel over the next two years.” Bordeaux sent Obertan on loan to Lorient for the second half of last season where he made 15 appearances, scoring once.

“This is a big opportunity for me to play at such a great club,” the player said. “I am very excited to be here.”

Obertan is Ferguson’s third signing of the close season after Antonio Valencia and Michael Owen, while Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez have led the departures in an already eventful summer at Old Trafford.

Meanwhile Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck has revealed the Blues remain confident they will land one of their two big transfer targets.

The Blues are still interested in Alexandre Pato, David Villa and Wesley Sneijder, while they have not given up hope of buying Franck Ribery from Bayern Munich.

Ribery insists that he wants to join Real Madrid but the Spanish club’s general director, Jorge Valdano, claims they are not prepared to meet Bayern’s £70m asking price and have pulled out of the race.

Chelsea boosted their squad strength with the arrival of Ross Turnbull on a free from Middlesbrough and Manchester City’s Daniel Sturridge for a fee to be decided by a tribunal.

Left-back Yuri Zhirkov has joined from CSKA Moscow for £18million on a three-year contract.

But Buck says their summer spending is far from finished.

“We said before the transfer season started that we expected four or five in and a couple out,” said Buck. “That is still our expectation. We are looking for a marquee name and are chasing a few but most of the big clubs are chasing the same players.”

Buck also remains confident that captain John Terry, a target for Manchester City, will stay despite reports the defender wants ‘showdown’ talks with owner Roman Abramovich.

“John Terry is synonymous with Chelsea and Chelsea is synonymous with him,” said Buck. “He is the backbone of our team and is not leaving.”