Berbatov spurned again by Tottenham

Dimitar Berbatov was yesterday told by the Tottenham Hotspur hierarchy that he was not wanted at Stamford Bridge as the negotiations to sell the player to Manchester United went into today's final 24 hours of the transfer window. The Bulgarian striker was left out the Spurs squad for the second consecutive game as the club waited for United to match their £30m valuation.

Tottenham's manager, Juande Ramos, said after the 1-1 draw with Chelsea that he did not even know where the striker was. Spurs have told United that they will be prepared to sell only if they can get a third striker in by tonight, in addition to their new signing, Roman Pavlyuchenko, and Darren Bent. It has been suggested they would accept United's 20-year-old striker Frazier Campbell as part of a deal.

Campbell has been brought back to United after a successful loan spell at Hull but is known to be pessimistic about his prospects of breaking into the first team. Although the United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, does not usually allow academy players to leave before he is certain they will not make the grade, it would be one way to end the stand-off with Spurs.

Spurs have not given up hope of signing Andrei Arshavin, the Zenit St Petersburg midfielder.