SOCCER: Juan Sebastian Veron's advisers were in advanced negotiations with Chelsea last night after the club agreed a fee of about £15 million with Manchester United for the Argentina midfielder's transfer.

Veron's agent Fernando Hidalgo met Chelsea officials yesterday and a second meeting is planned for today at which the London club are expected to formalise a verbal offer to match Veron's current wages.

"The meeting with Chelsea on Wednesday is very important," said Hidalgo last night. "Everything is OK at the moment but we will need to confirm what we discussed on Tuesday.

"If Seba is very happy with what Chelsea offer, then we will close the contract with Manchester United."

All the indications emanating from United's travelling party in New York were that Veron has come round to the idea and will agree to the move, depending on personal terms.

That will not be easy given that Veron, along with Roy Keane, is the highest earner on United's playing staff with a salary of £90,000 a week before bonuses.

But such are the riches at Chelsea's disposal since Roman Abramovich took over, however, that the London club are optimistic that money will not scupper the deal.

Pini Zahavi, the Israeli agent who has handled all Abramovich's signings so far, believes that Veron will be a Stamford Bridge player before the end of the week.

Arrangements are provisionally being made for Veron to break off from United's visit to the East Coast to fly into London for his first face-to-face talks with the men in power at Stamford Bridge.

If everything goes according to plan, it will take Chelsea's spending to more than £50million since Abramovich bought out Ken Bates.

Veron trained along with the rest of United's party at the New York Giants' stadium yesterday but, while most of his team-mates have been widely available for interviews, Alex Ferguson has pulled him out of all his pre-arranged media obligations.

Ferguson's view is that United should accept an offer in the region of £15million, even if that is roughly half the amount United paid Lazio two years ago.

Although Veron has a repertoire of skills that makes him unique at Old Trafford, Ferguson has concerns about the midfielder's contribution in the club's most high-profile European matches.

That has been made clear to Veron, who initially rejected the opportunity to join Chelsea on the grounds that he considered it to be a backward step.

Slowly but surely, his attitude has become one of resignation that United want to sell him only two years into a five-year contract.

Veron knows that he would begin the season in Chelsea's first team, from where he would have less difficulty in maintaining his position as an international regular than on United's bench.

That is likely to have had a big influence on Veron's deliberations last night and he is expected to inform United's chief executive Peter Kenyon to authorise the transfer before the end of the week. It is unlikely, however, to occur in time for Chelsea to parade their latest signing along with his fellow newcomers Geremi, Damien Duff, Glen Johnson and Wayne Bridge at Stamford Bridge on Friday.

Though Veron's transfer would make a further approach for Roma's Emerson unlikely, the possibility that Christian Vieri could be heading for Stamford Bridge remains.

Internazionale's Australian-raised Italian is understood to be keen on the Premiership and on Chelsea's riches and could be set to make them the 10th club of his career. Chelsea could yet follow up their interest of earlier this month with a more formal offer for the 30-year-old striker.

It appears that Inter, who had previously referred to Vieri as "untransferable" are growing nervous about the possibility of losing him and their technical director Marco Branca said last night: "He is our player. Everyone is free to offer but we want Vieri and this is not for discussion." None the less, if Chelsea lodged a £20million offer for Vieri, Inter would find it difficult to turn it down. The player is believed to hold a clause in his contract that entitles him to a portion of any transfer fee.

The prospect of moves for Veron and Vieri would cast new doubt on the futures of Emmanuel Petit and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

Petit is recovering from surgery but is the subject of interest from Tottenham, who are in the market for a left-sided central midfielder, and Hasselbaink is rumoured to be heading for the Spanish club Real Betis after Chelsea reportedly offered to pay half his wages to move.

Guardian Service