Football: Ferdinand move is a financial decision says Dalglish

Tottenham announced yesterday that they expect to complete the pounds 6m signing of England striker Les Ferdinand tomorrow, and the Newcastle manager, Kenny Dalglish, admitted that the decision to sell the player had been a financial one.

Dalglish said: "I don't want to get involved discussing politics. But this was a financial decision more than a football one." He added: "Tottenham declared their interest and a price was mentioned and when that price was met we were duty bound to let Les talk to them."

Ferdinand, who will become the most expensive 30-year-old ever if the deal goes through, did not train with Newcastle as planned yesterday, travelling to London instead to discuss the personal terms of his move to the north London club. Tottenham manager Gerry Francis said he expected Ferdinand to complete contract negotiations before Monday. He added: "I don't envisage any problems with him signing."

The future of Newcastle's Peter Beardsley, meanwhile, remained unclear. Kenny Dalglish said the striker had not yet decided whether to accept the offer of a pounds 500,000 move to Bolton.

Dalglish did complete one move yesterday, signing Inter's defender Alessandro Pistone who joined for pounds 4.3m on a four-year contract.

Graeme Le Saux has told the Blackburn Rovers manager, Roy Hodgson, that he no longer wants to play for the club. Hodgson had hoped to persuade the England left-back to stay at Ewood Park but Le Saux is adamant about leaving, having publicly admitted being unhappy several times last season. Jack Walker, the club's owner, will decide within the next week whether to release Le Saux, who has been dropped from today's friendly at West Bromwich, from his contract, which has two years to run.

Chelsea go into this weekend's Umbro Cup Tournament at Goodison Park against Newcastle, Everton and Ajax with nine of their squad injured, including recent imports Celestine Babayaro and Bernard Lambourde, as well as Dennis Wise and FA Cup final goalscorer Eddie Newton.

Everton, meanwhile, are giving Tranmere's right-back Tony Thomas an opportunity to join them by taking him on trial for this weekend's tournament.

Premiership newcomers Barnsley, who currently have eight foreign players on their books, are to set up a football academy to ensure the development of young local players. The move follows recommendations by the Football Association's technical director, Howard Wilkinson, that academies should be set up at all Premiership clubs.

Manchester United will travel to Italy for a friendly match against Internazionale without David Beckham and Gary Neville, who are still recovering from this summer's tournament in France and will play in a reserve game at Lancaster instead.

Celtic yesterday completed their second major signing within 24 hours with the arrival of 25-year-old Swedish striker Henrik Larsson, for pounds 650,000 from Feyenoord. He will make his debut in a friendly against Parma today along with Craig Burley, who completed his pounds 2.5m move from Chelsea on Wednesday.

Middlesbrough have turned down the chance to sign the former Barcelona captain Jose Bakero following his three-week trial at the Riverside.

Brighton will not be allowed to ground-share with Millwall until the 1998-99 season. The club had hoped to move from their temporary home at Gillingham after six months, but this has not been approved by the FA.