IS HE OR ISN'T HE?

From the Guardian:

Manchester United confidently expect Louis Saha to become their third signing in a week after the French striker revealed last night that Fulham had told him he could go.

The 25-year-old revealed the fee would be £10m and described himself as "very happy", adding that joining the Premiership leaders would be "like a dream."

"I have thought about this for nearly a month now," he said. "Right from the start I wanted to join Manchester United. I don't fear being a substitute. I want to prove myself and I can't wait."

Saha and his advisers expect the deal to go through as early as this weekend, so bringing to an end several weeks of delicate, often fractious negotiations between the two clubs.

United had a board meeting on Monday in which the directors are understood to have sanctioned reaching a compromise between their £8m bid and Fulham's £15m valuation.

Saha is so convinced the deal is all but done he went as far as speaking about his medical examination. "I just want to be there," he said.

Using their favoured agent Pini Zihavi and Saha's own representatives, United have been working in tandem with the forward to convince Fulham's owner Mohammed Al Fayed to sell.

United's dogged pursuit finally looks to have paid off and last night's announcement will have been of intense satisfaction, therefore, to Ferguson after a week in which he has signed the young midfielder Liam Miller on a pre-contract agreement from Celtic to join them on July 1 and brought in the club's first-ever Chinese player Dong Fangzhou, a 19-year-old striker with Dalian Shide who will cost an initial £500,000 rising to a possible £3.5m.

However both clubs have denied these reports which appear in most papers this morning. Fulham spokesman Chester Stern said:

"There has been no fresh bid from Manchester United. There is no truth in the story at all."