Manchester United confidently expect to make the Dutch international centre-back Jaap Stam the most expensive defender in world football within the next 10 days.

They have lodged an official bid of £9.2 million with Stam's club, PSV Eindhoven, a sum far in excess of the £5.2 million that brought Roberto Carlos from Internazionale to Real Madrid and saw Graeme Le Saux leave Blackburn and return to Chelsea.

Stam's departure is now regarded as inevitable in Holland, so much so that the former England coach Bobby Robson, who will take charge at PSV this summer, is already believed to have found a replacement in the Portuguese international Abel Xavier, who plays for the Spanish club Real Oveido.

United are now happy to sit back and allow Stam to negotiate his own way to Old Trafford. Although PSV remain adamant that the much-coveted 25-year-old is worth at least £15 million, their resolve to keep him was showing distinct signs of weakening yesterday.

"We would really like to keep him for at least another 12 months but if he wants to go and if the price is right then he will go," said the PSV spokesman Pedro Salazar-Hewitt.

Stam is believed to be ready to remove the final stumbling block by waiving his right to a 15 per cent cut of any transfer fee, an agreement which could have netted him more than £1 million. Only eight months ago he signed a new five-year deal at PSV, but he is determined to move to England and preferably before this summer's World Cup finals in France.

"Jaap is very ambitious and he does want to play for United," said his agent Ton van Dalen. "As soon as the clubs have done a deal he will be on his way to England."

United's chairman Martin Edwards said: "I have made an offer which they have said they would come back to me about within the next two weeks. I understand that the player will this week have another meeting with his club in the hope of sorting everything out."