Milan make £19m Nesta their deadline-day man
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Your support makes all the difference.Tottenham Hotspur completed the £7m signing of Robbie Keane from Leeds United, while Bolton secured a one-year loan deal for the Real Madrid defender Ivan Campo as the European transfer deadline passed yesterday afternoon. But the biggest deal of the day took place in Italy where the defender Alessandro Nesta completed a £19m move from Lazio to Milan.
The signing of the 26-year-old Italy international, on a five-year contract, is a major coup for Milan, who had a £16.5m bid rejected earlier last month. Juventus and Internazionale also made unsuccessful offers and Nesta had been expected to remain in Rome with the club where he began his career.
Back home, Spurs finalised terms with the 22-year-old Keane, who completed a medical and signed a four-year contract with an option for a further two seasons. Afterwards David Pleat, the Spurs director of football, hit back at Bolton, Chelsea and Real Madrid after all three clubs criticised the north Londoners' transfer dealings.
The Chelsea chairman, Ken Bates, claimed that Spurs made an unacceptable bid for Eidur Gudjohnsen, while the Bolton manager, Sam Allardyce, twice alleged that Tottenham had unsettled Michael Ricketts by making their interest in him public. Then Real Madrid suggested that the White Hart Lane club had reduced their final offer for Fernando Morientes.
"Our supporters are being misled by these criticisms and that is unfair on the club," Pleat said. "Ricketts was offered to us just before the deadline by agents acting on behalf of Bolton, and we were simply not interested in the deal suggested.
"We did make an enquiry for Gudjohnsen but never made an offer. With Morientes it is now quite clear that Madrid were using our interest in the player to obtain the best possible deal from their rivals Barcelona. We are always totally proper in our transfer dealings and resent any suggestions to the contrary."
Leeds moved late yesterday to strengthern their defence by signing the Swedish international Teddy Lucic on loan from AIK Solna for the rest of the season. The versatile 28-year-old played in all of Sweden's games at the World Cup and can play anywhere across the back four.
Real Madrid's frantic efforts to sign Ronaldo from Internazionale before the deadline were continuing right up until the last minute yesterday, with sources in Spain suggesting that the clubs had agreed to a complicated transfer structure which would have seen Inter receive around £12m in cash, plus Morientes, plus another Madrid player of their choice valued at £6.5m, bringing the total value of the package to around £32m.
Deportivo La Coruña, who had also been linked with Ronaldo, ended their quest for a new striker by signing Mallorca's 24-year-old Spanish international, Albert Luque, for a fee of around £9.5m.
Clubs across Europe – with the exception of Nationwide League sides, who are exempted this season on financial grounds – cannot now trade players until the transfer window reopens in January.
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