Everton agree record fee to sign Yakubu

Everton issued a sudden declaration of intent in the transfer market last night when they agreed a club record £11.25m fee with Middlesbrough for the striker Ayegbeni Yakubu.

The 24-year-old Nigerian international arrived on Merseyside to discuss personal terms on a five-year deal last night and will undergo a medical today. Providing there are no problems on either front, and the Goodison Park club will have to offer a lucrative sum to secure a player who has also interested Portsmouth and big-spending Manchester City since Sven Goran Eriksson arrived, Yakubu could be an Everton player before their Premier League game at home to Blackburn on Saturday.

Everton's bid dwarfs the £8.6m they paid Crystal Palace for Andrew Johnson last summer and comes after protracted negotiations and after Boro secured a replacement with the £6m signing of Mido from Tottenham. It is also the midway figure between the £10m Everton were initially prepared to pay and the £12.5m Boro were seeking for a player they signed for £7.5m from Portsmouth in 2005, and who has scored 35 goals in two seasons on Teesside but whose recent, disinterested performances and absence from training this week made his departure appear inevitable.

"We can confirm we have agreed a fee for the sale of Yakubu and he has been given permission to talk to Everton," revealed a Boro spokesman yesterday. "We will only confirm the fee once any deal is complete."

Everton, however, were not so hesitant in revealing the full extent of their ambitious attempt to break their transfer record. A statement read: "Everton can confirm that they have agreed a club record transfer fee of £11.25m with Middlesbrough for the transfer of Yakubu. The Nigerian international centre-forward is now travelling to Merseyside for talks."

The manager David Moyes had been relatively quiet in the transfer market before the start of the new season – an outlay of £10m on Leighton Baines, Phil Jagielka and the on-loan Steven Pienaar offset by the £5m recouped from the sales of James Beattie and Gary Naysmith to Sheffield United. But the sale of Beattie plus the loss of James Vaughan and Tim Cahill through injury has depleted his resources for a campaign involving the Uefa Cup, and the club have now come up with the money to meet their manager's transfer strategy.

Everton can afford the initial payments on the Yakubu deal themselves, along with the protracted move for Benfica's Manuel Fernandes, but the rest is believed to have been provided by Robert Earl, the American multi-millionaire and founder of the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain, who joined the board last season.

Yakubu returned to training with Middlesbrough yesterday after going Awol for two days instead of reporting for duty with Nigeria. His departure will mean that manager Gareth Southgate has lost his first-choice strike partnership from last season, Mark Viduka having joined Newcastle on a free this summer, although Heerenveen's prolific marksman Afonso Alves has been linked with the Riverside in recent days.