With Manchester United posting quarter of a BILLION in profits, you’d have thought Sir Alex Ferguson could afford Dimitar Berbatov, even at £40m. But it looks as if the Old Trafford boss has conceded defeat to Chelsea in the chase for Tottenham’s Bulgarian ace – and is settling for Ajax goal-den boy Klaas Jan Huntelaar instead (The Sun).

Huntelaar, nicknamed The Hunter, has scored 53 times in just 65 appearances over three seasons with the Dutch giants and will cost £12m, less than a third of the going rate for Berba.

United had better be quick, though, because Juventus and Arsenal have been watching the 24-year-old striker who has nine, er, Dutch caps. But Sir Alex Ferguson has a bit of a history of falling out with stars from the Netherlands when they get too big for their boots – remember Jaap Stam and Ruud van Nistelrooy?

'Huntelaar, nicknamed The Hunter, has scored 53 times in just 65 appearances over three seasons with the Dutch giants and will cost £12m, less than a third of the going rate for Berba'


As the richest club on the planet, United have told Real Madrid to keep their Spanish mitts off Portuguese wizard Cristiano Ronaldo. He’s not for sale – even for £50m (Various). “Everything about him is Manchester United – he’s like George Best, Eric Cantona,” says Old Trafford chief executive David Gill. “You can’t sell players like that – and we are not going to sell players like that.”

Over on Tyneside, Harry Redknapp hasn't even replaced Sam Allardyce at Newcastle yet and The Sun is already giving him the money to buy Pascal Chimbonda from Spurs. How can you refuse the job now, 'Arry?

So that’s life in the mega-rich Premier League where you can light your cigars with crisp £50 notes, but spare a thought for the rest of English football, and for Luton Town in particular. The sad Hatters have a lucrative FA Cup replay against Liverpool next week but they have just sold two of their best players to help them survive (Daily Mail) – midfielder Dave Edwards has gone to Wolves for £650,000 and defender Chris Coyne to Colchester for £350,000. Boss Kevin Blackwell is going to have to raid his youth team to put out a side at Anfield. How the other half live!