Gossip: Eric's replacement

Madrid, despite Tottenham agreeing a club record fee with Middlesbrough.

Focus also centred upon Rangers forward Brian Laudrup, who had been shining in the Scottish Premier League. It was reported that the boss thought he had got his man with a £6.5million offer but the Gers convinced the Dane to stay after emergency talks.

Ajax had also be keen to land the classy younger brother of Michael, who would eventually join Chelsea in 1998 and whose brother is currently managing Swansea in the Barclays Premier League.

Alex Ferguson was said to have asked Kenny Swain to scout Crewe's Danny Murphy in England Under-20 action in Malaysia, a player who went on to be a nemesis in his Liverpool days.

The Sunday Mirror forwarded Sunderland's Michael Bridges as an option for United but the wiry forward was to join Leeds and suffer from injury problems. The same newspaper also believed Juventus wide man Angelo Di Livio was on the manager's radar, despite competition from Roma.