Anelka to SS Lazio - the final hours

French striker Nicolas Anelka will decide today whether to complete his transfer to SS Lazio from Arsenal after 151 days of rows and indecision from all parties involved in the talks.

Arsenal have accepted the latest offer from the Rome club of £22 million to sell the 20 year old who has insisted since the start of last month that he would only a consider a move to Lazio following the collapse of a bid by Real Madrid.

Lazio were reported to have abandoned any hope of signing Anelka once they returned to training at Formello outside Rome last week. The British press on Saturday morning believed the deal to be dead but as worldsoccernews.com reported last week the Rome club were set to make another offer after the rejection two weeks ago an £18 million cash bid by the London club.

Since that rejection Anelka's agents have agreed to lessen their pay demands to ease the progress of the transfer which mired last week as the striker sought legal advice about an attempt to quit his Arsenal contract and force through a move to Lazio. The legal complications threatened to halt Anelka's career and he has been advised by Lazio and French national team coach to abandon plans to try and set a legal precedent to end his Arsenal contract which has four years to run.

The acceptance of the Lazio bid by Arsenal is close to ending this long running saga later today but the main complication still to be sorted out involves Anelka's wages. The new offer from Lazio contains a lower wage offer than originally wanted by the French star but he will increase his wages by three times if he makes the move to Rome. Lazio have set a midnight tonight deadline to end the deal or the player will not be available for transfer from Arsenal as the London club will try to enforce their existing contract with Anelka to make him play on in the Premiership.

The player does not feature in any of the fantasy football games being produced in England at the moment as players start to prepare for the new campaign. Each game features a list of Premiership players to be bought to make a team but the French striker is not listed. The assumption is that he will sign for Lazio and Arsenal will add Thierry Henry to their squad this week to replace Anelka after fruitful negotiations with Juventus concerning the Henry's purchase.

Lazio want Anelka to replace Italian international Christian Vieri who joined Internazionale six weeks ago in a world record £28 million move and their failure to sign Claudio Lopez from Valencia merely added to the urgency to sign the 20 year old. Another bid was always likely from Rome and the £22 million offer now looks set to bring Anelka to Italy.