Christian Vieri is due to be unveiled today as a Chelsea player in the most arresting deal so far of the Roman Abramovich revolution.
Internazionale have accepted a fee of £20.5 million ($56.7 million) for the 30-year-old striker and it is believed that Vieri, after an initial reluctance, has agreed to the move.
He will earn a salary of more than £5 million a year.
The signing of the imposing Italian - on the deadline day for next week's Champions League tie against the Slovakian side MK Zilina - brings spending in the past month at Chelsea to £79 million, of which an astonishing £42.1 million has been splashed out in the past 48 hours.
On Wednesday afternoon, Juan Sebastian Veron arrived in London for talks and is expected to sign a four-year deal today in a £15 million transfer from Manchester United.
West Ham United's Joe Cole was at Stamford Bridge earlier, finalising a £6.6 million move.
Abramovich has secured 10 new players, but it will be the signing of Vieri which will cause the greatest impact on world football.
Until today, all of Chelsea's major signings have come from within the premiership and concern was growing that, despite financial advantages, the club lacked the cachet to attract the very top players.
Vieri, it is hoped, will change that, and a move for Real Madrid's Claude Makelele is still possible.
The Vieri deal also means that Chelsea have managed to negotiate a reduction of £10 million on the fee quoted by Inter for a player who had been initially described as "intransferable."
Chelsea's strategy has been to buy young players who would retain a sell-on value, but with Vieri they realise he may provide the impetus for a tilt at the premiership and the Champions League.
"They were desperate to get Vieri but did not want to pay over the odds because of his age," one source said. "But Chelsea also understand that they are still not regarded as a big club and getting him may help attract other big names."
Meanwhile, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said the sale of Veron was a footballing decision, as well as a financial one.
Ferguson last week said he did not expect Veron to be sold following a successful pre-season tour of the United States.
But this week he said an abundance of talented midfielders at his disposal, coupled with Chelsea's offer, had prompted Veron's sale.
"The overall package, in terms of what we are saving on his salary and what we are getting from Chelsea, made it too interesting for us," Ferguson said.
"But I don't think we needed that [money]. It's more to do with the number of midfielders we already have.
"He was a marvellous player ... We were very happy with him."
Ferguson will now set his sights on signing a defender and a striker, but warned other clubs not to expect United to pay unreasonable transfer fees, despite bringing in nearly £50 million for David Beckham and Veron in the past two months.
"There's clubs selling because the gravy train has stopped at the moment - there's one massive buyer, that's Chelsea, and the rest are trying to be sensible," Ferguson said.
"We at United have always kept a good ship, very well balanced in terms of salaries and money paid out, and we are always competitive in terms of winning things."
- INDEPENDENT
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