Manchester United finally lured Dimitar Berbatov to Old Trafford for a fee of £30.75 million from Tottenham Hotspur moments before the clock ticked past midnight. Berbatov’s future had been up in the air for most of the day, with the Bulgaria forward hoping to complete his dream move to United, only to see the clubs squabbling over the transfer fee, with Manchester City trying to hijack the deal to boot.

Tottenham received their valuation and Fraizer Campbell will move to White Hart Lane on a season-long loan. The England Under-21 forward helped Hull City to promotion to the Barclays Premier League last season while on loan. As part of the deal, Tottenham dropped their official complaint about United’s pursuit of Berbatov. On a frantic day, Tottenham failed in their attempts to sign Carlton Cole, the West Ham United forward and Emile Heskey, the Wigan Athletic striker.

The day had begun in equally dramatic fasion. If Berbatov’s whereabouts were unknown when he was “not in the right frame of mind” to play in Tottenham’s 1-1 draw away to Chelsea on Sunday, then it became clearer yesterday morning when he landed in Manchester, supposedly to meet United — or their nearest rivals.

City were suddenly flush with money — after a group of Abu Dhabi investors made a bid for the club — and were making offers for some of the best attacking players in the world. Tottenham, so reluctant to sell Berbatov to United anyway, were quick to accept City’s £32.5 million offer.

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Would Berbatov be persuaded to dash his dream of playing and winning titles with United by the inevitable pots of cash on offer from City? Among the wild rumours whirling around yesterday was that Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, hijacked the City welcoming committee, which had been sent to meet Berbatov at the airport. The Bulgaria striker was then whisked to United’s Carrington training complex — near where City train — to meet Ferguson.

As it emerged that Berbatov may have been having a medical, Tottenham, who were striving for information about the whereabouts of their player, were getting increasingly hot under the collar. They claimed that United had not been given permission to talk to the forward, because no bid had been accepted. Tottenham had turned down United’s £25 million offer two weeks ago.

Tottenham then threatened action against United for an alleged “tapping-up”, as well as scuppering their chances of selling Berbatov to City. Amid all of this, Tottenham were trying to recruit another forward. They offered £10 million for Cole after their interest in Heskey, the England striker, came to nothing. Wigan were trying to sign Mido, the Middlesbrough and former Tottenham forward, to release Heskey for sale, but the Teesside club would not budge. Tottenham first tried to sign Cole when he was at Chelsea, but West Ham were asking for more than £12 million for the forward.

Tottenham started the last day of the summer transfer window by completing deals to sign Roman Pavlyuchenko and Vedran Corluka. The Russia forward, who signed a five-year contract, cost £14 million from Spartak Moscow. He was England’s nemesis with two goals in the Euro 2008 qualifying game in Moscow last year.

Pavlyuchenko, who has made 22 appearances for Russia, began his career with Dynamo Stavropol before moving to Rotor Volgograd in the top flight. The 6ft 3in striker was the leading goalscorer in Russia’s top league in the past two seasons. Tottenham bought Corluka from Manchester City for £8.5 million. The Croatia right back signed a six-year contract and will link up with his best friend, Luka Modric, the midfield player. Tottenham believe that Corluka can replace Ledley King in the long term as a central-defensive partner for Jonathan Woodgate.