United to sign van Nistelrooy for £19 million

Manchester United are to bring PSV Eindhoven star Ruud van Nistelrooy to Old Trafford next week for media interviews and medical tests to confirm a new British record signing of £19 million.

The previous record was set by Newcastle when they layed out £15 million to sign Alan Shearer from Blackburn Rovers in 1995.

PSV have agreed the £19 million fee for the 23 year old who has been the top scorer in Holland for the past two seasons. In the current campaign Nistelrooy fired 29 goals before a knee injury last month held up his career for two months. He has yet to regain match fitness after the knee ligament strain but is on course to be part of Holland's squad for the Euro 2000 finals.

Parma AC and Juventus both monitored van Nistelrooy's progress with PSV but recent Premiership interest has been led by United after Chelsea and Arsenal both ran the rule over the tall front runner.

PSV wanted £20 million for their star which Chelsea and Arsenal were both unwilling to pay but money is not a problem for the Premiership champions elect who are already preparing for next season's Champions League campaign. United have five top strikers with the addition of the Dutchman who will sign a five year contract next week. Veteran Teddy Sheringham has still to commit to a new contract and talks go on while manager Sir Alex Ferguson still rates the partnership of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole very highly.

The first choice pairing of Cole and Yorke have helped to smash the Premiership scoring record with 84 goals so far and still four games to play in the season.

Such an impressive strike rate has helped to mask some problems in Europe for the 1999 Champions League winners. They lost 3-2 at home to Real Madrid to surrender their title on Wednesday night and failed to score an away goal in Madrid which was their third blank away from Old Traford in their last three Champions League matches.

A record like that prompted United to come up with the cash for the highly rated van Nistelrooy.