IF PATRICK does and Dwight doesn't could it mean that Andy still will? At the moment, at least, the answer is yes. Manchester United's attempts to bring Dwight Yorke and Patrick Kluivert to Old Trafford without losing Andy Cole as part of the deal have foundered on the resistance of John Gregory, the Aston Villa manager.
A week of manufactured intrigue has ended in a stand-off between the clubs that, deal or no deal, will surely result in calls for a more dignified way of buying and selling players.
The deal was simple enough: Manchester United wanted to buy Yorke to partner Kluivert. It was a potentially deadly tandem and for part of the week it looked as if it was going to happen, but when Villa suspected United's trouble with Kluivert might up the ante on Yorke the repositioning began. United would have none of it: "Our interest in Kluivert is not dependent on Yorke. We are relaxed about the Yorke situation right now," said a club spokesman. But now, no matter what Milan say about Kluivert, it appears Villa have decided no deal, and unless chairman Doug Ellis intervenes above Gregory (and with Ellis that is quite possible) Cole will stay at Old Trafford and Yorke at Villa Park.
The prospect of Ellis's intervention might be responsible for Gregory's uptight behaviour, for as this transfer tale has developed he has become increasingly testy and bitter. His response to United's initial £8m offer was simple: "That's an insult." It set the tone for a week in which Gregory sounded so accusatory at times that it would have been no surprise to hear him claim Ferguson had put a horse's head in his bed in order to get Yorke.
In Scandinavia with his squad, Ferguson played a typical waiting game throughout the week. Public pronouncements, when made, were about Kluivert and were relaxed: "We'll try and do a deal when the boy comes back from holiday." Meanwhile, Gregory was complaining about United attempting to "psyche out" his player and speculating that their approaches to Yorke may have been illegal and at least warranted FA investigation. In truth the only person who was psyched out was Gregory. Ferguson let him boil away gently for the week until on Friday, in a move that outraged Gregory, Ferguson gave an interview to the Old Trafford club-call service in which he assured supporters he would not include Cole in the deal.
By Friday night Gregory was ruling out selling Yorke even if United included Cole and the money. "Any proposed transfer is now dead as far as I am concerned," he said. "We have £15m in the bank, so more money is of little use to us. What we need as a matter of urgency, if Dwight Yorke was allowed to go to Old Trafford, would be an instant replacement. Andy Cole fits that bill."
Which was typical of the incoherence of Villa's position: in two sentences Gregory closed negotiations then reopened them on the same terms. Neutrals can look forward to Ferguson's next move.
