Anelka saga nears the end

No wonder Arsene Wenger was grinning from ear to ear. First blood against Manchester United, au revoir at last to Nicolas Anelka and a spot of work for charity. It was surely the perfect day.

The news that Anelka is poised to join Real Madrid will arguably please him most. That the Bernabeu will be his final destination is a fittingly bizarre end to the whole sorry affair.

Never mind that Wenger was adamant he would never sell the striker to Real after reporting the Spanish club to Fifa for illegal approaches to the player. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

"In the end there was an explanation from Real Madrid that satisfied the club and as well it was a question of selling the player or killing his career," Wenger said. "Arsenal would have survived but the player maybe would have had to fret over his career and we didn't want to be responsible for that.

"We have a verbal agreement with Real Madrid subject to the contract being signed and a medical."

Arsenal's vice-chairman David Dein said last night the deal should be done in the next 48 hours.

Everyone at Highbury will breathe a deep sigh of relief, with an expected profit of nearly £22m on a player who arrived from Paris St-Germain for only £500,000 in 1997 further helping the mood.

"It's been a long time and a very unpleasant saga," said Dein, and his manager clearly shares that view: "It was sad we couldn't sit together for a long time," Wenger said. "It was more like a power struggle than a business deal. And also what I didn't like was that I wanted to keep the player and I can't.

"But what's important is the players who want to fight for this club. That performance showed that Arsenal do not depend on one player." Certainly Anelka was hardly missed yesterday but Wenger hopes to sign two replacements for the 20-year-old. Juventus' Thierry Henry remains a target but he confirmed Liverpool's Robbie Fowler is definitely not.

"Thierry Henry wants to play for us and that's very positive," he said, "but we must still find an agreement with Juventus." Finance has been a recent stumbling block but Anelka's sale may solve that.

Manchester United have dismissed out of hand a £35 million bid for David Beckham. Italian Serie A club Fiorentina made what they admitted was an "audacious bid".

Sir Alex Ferguson immediately rejected the proposed deal, telling the Italians Beckham is not for sale and that even £50 million will not buy a piece of the player. The current world record stands at the £31 million lavished by Inter Milan on Christian Vieri from Lazio.