Meanwhile Peter Ridsdale yesterday flew to Italy to formalise Olivier Dacourt's £15m transfer to Juventus. Leeds are still also hoping to offload Robbie Keane for £8m to help Leeds raise £30m.
From the Guardian:
Pascal Cygan, the defender signed from Lille for £2.1m, is likely to be the only new face at Arsenal this summer after the club effectively imposed a financial freeze on Arsène Wenger.
With a £125m stadium being built at Ashburton Grove and a hefty wage bill, the Arsenal manager must sell before he can buy more players.
Elsewhere: Claudio Ranieri has held summit talks with Ken Bates over the future of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
The Chelsea manager, alarmed at reports that the club were prepared to part with the Dutch striker, sought assurances from his chairman that this would not be the case.
The west London club's financial situation is such that they are believed to be prepared to listen to offers for any member of their squad. They are particularly keen to cash in on their 30-year-old star striker because his value will decline as he gets further into his thirties and closer to the end of his contract, which expires in 2005.
Last Wednesday one of Chelsea's appointed transfer- market agents, Vincenzo Morabito, was invited to a meeting at Barcelona's Camp Nou offices with the Catalan club's director general, Javier Perez Farguell. Morabito made it clear that Chelsea's starting price was £25m and the meeting ended without resolution.
Liverpool have signed French midfielder Alou Diarra on a free from Bayern Munich and should be joined at Anfield by Lille's Bruno Cheyrou within days.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter has sacked the organisation's communications director Keith Cooper.
Cooper is the second victim of Blatter's campaign to rid football's world governing body of any influential figures who are not wholehearted supporters of his, following the departure of general secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen.