Arsenal closing in on #15m Wiltord By Ian Ladyman

Arsenal have moved closer to the #15million capture of France's Euro 2000 saviour Sylvain Wiltord after the Bordeaux striker won an extraordinary game of brinkmanship with his club.

Wiltord's agent in France has told Soccernet she expects the 26-year-old European Championship winner to be an Arsenal player within seven days.

Bordeaux president Jean-Louis Triaud earlier this week told Wiltord that he would not be allowed to leave until at least the end of the coming season, by which time they would not have to pay his former club Deportivo La Coruna 35 per cent of any sell-on fee.

But Wiltord threatened to take Bordeaux through the European courts in a bid to fight for the right to be released from his contract and Triaud has now agreed to the sale.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has already spent #18m on Wiltord's France team-mate Robert Pires, Cameroon midfielder Lauren and Brazilian Edu but has maintained since the end of last season that he needs a striker to complement the pace of Thierry Henry.

'The situation looks quite good at the moment,' said Wiltord's representative, Giselaine Dugueteroux.

'We hope that he will come to London for this season o play in your beautiful country.

'We expect him to join Arsene Wenger and his French team-mates from the European Championships. We are just waiting for the agreement between Arsenal and Bordeaux to be finalised.

'Sylvain likes the UK and he wants to play in the Champions League. Arsenal are a great club.'

Wiltord's career has blossomed since he moved to Bordeaux from Spain two seasons ago. He scored 22 goals in just 30 games during the club's championship season and another 13 goals during the last campaign.

His profile reached a high on Sunday night when he scored the 94th-minute equaliser in France's 2-1 Euro 2000 victory over Italy.

Pires arrived in London on Monday to complete his switch from Marseilles but last night shocked his new club by revealing that he would have preferred to join Champions League winners Real Madrid.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2000

Answers

O.K. Manu have issued a 'catch us if you can' challenge.

Arsenal have radically improved their club, especially if Wiltord signs.

Liverpool, Chelsea, Leeds have all made major signings to strengthen their squads. And Liverpool also appear to have a fine batch of midfield youngsters coming through.

Tottenham and Westham have added a couple of quality players each, and between the two clubs have about two thirds of the next England U.21 squad - I kid you not, their players absolutely dominate the defence and midfield of the new squad. And Tottenham want to add a couple more quality players, notebly a striker and left winger. While Westham want to add to more players, but this is contingent on offloading a couple of players for salery reason only.

While NUFC have signed two Argentinians, neither of whom are currently in their country's national squad. And we don't even know Bassedas prefered position - left wing, in the hole or central midfield. We still would need to sign Helder, Guardiola and a striker, while only unloading unwanted players simply to justyify the bookmakers faith in us by offering odds of 40/1 and sixth in the premiership race. Both of which I feel are generous. But all you have to do is check the odds of the top five teams then those of the next five to see that the gulf in the EPL class is ever increasing.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2000

Spurs go all out to woo #6m Cort By Adrian Curtis

Tottenham have made a #6 million move for Wimbledon striker Carl Cort.

They are also attempting to finalise a deal for Wimbledon left-back Ben Thatcher, a long term target for manager George Graham.

Spurs are hoping for permission to talk to both play-ers later today after the relegated Dons paved the way for both players to leave.

Spurs, who face competition for Cort from Leeds, Leicester and Newcastle, tabled the #6m offer when Wimbledon returned for pre-season training.

Spurs director of football, David Pleat, confirmed an offer had been made for both players.

Pleat said: 'We are not denying we have been speaking to Wimbledon and it is true that we have an offer on the table. We are waiting to see if the bid is accepted so that we can speak to the players.'

The club are hoping to continue building their squad for next season after signing former Wimbledon goalkeeper Neil Sullivan on a free transfer last month and spending a club record #11m on Ukrainian international Sergei Rebrov from Dynamo Kiev.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2000

And we could almost add Coventry to the list of teams that NUFC will be competing for the last EUFA spot...

RICHARDSON NAMES WANTED DUO

Coventry chairman Bryan Richardson is confident he can lure both Don Hutchison and Niclas Alexandersson to Highfield Road.

Hutchison has been transfer-listed by Everton and Sheffield Wednesday's Alexandersson has made it clear that he has made it clear that he has no interest in paddling around in the Nationwide waters.

"There's competition on both, but I think we've got a reasonable chance of doing something on one or both," saidRichardson.

"Clearly they're players who are excellent players and who we would very much like to bring to Highfield Road."

Everton boss Walter Smith added: "We have a number of clubs interested in Don at the present moment, but so far there's nothing concrete in terms of agreement with Everton as regards to his transfer."

(Well at least they would have the midfield, attack and keeper to hang with NUFC).

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2000

Tre,

Didn't Hutchinson recently go public and say he wouldn't be joining Coventry cos he wanted to join Celtic?

Still a little gutted that they might be getting Alexanderrson :((

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2000

Gav,

Don't know, I haven't heard that, but he might very well have.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2000

About 1 week - 10 days ago I think....

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2000