Wes Brown is to commit his future to Manchester United after the deadlock over his contract negotiations was broken. Brown was eligible to leave on a free transfer at the end of his present contract, which expires in June, but with talks having reopened this week after a six-month stalemate, the England defender has agreed a new four-year deal.

It has always been Brown's intention to stay at Old Trafford, but his contract talks have proved problematic, with the club unwilling to meet his request to be promoted to the squad's middle band of earners on about £55,000 a week.

The stand-off has been acrimonious, with Sir Alex Ferguson critical of Paul Martin, the player's agent, but Martin met David Gill, the chief executive, on Tuesday to discuss a compromise, which Brown has accepted in principle. The matter will be sent to the club's lawyers for approval and an announcement is expected in the next fortnight.

With an improved new five-year contract for Rio Ferdinand also agreed, it has been an expensive week for United, but retaining the England defenders represents good business. Brown has been integral to Ferguson's plans this season, making more league appearances than any other United player, and has attracted interest far beyond the usual suspects of Everton, Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United. His availability was known to Liverpool, but he was preparing to consider a move to an unspecified overseas club had a new deal not been agreed with United, where his brother, Reece, is in the youth academy.

The next priority for Gill is to secure the future of Patrice Evra, who has 14 months left on his contract. Evra, 26, was given a three-and-a-half-year deal on his arrival from AS Monaco in January 2006 and as a relatively unproven player at the time, the terms he accepted were moderate by Old Trafford standards. He has stated that he intends to stay in Manchester for the long term, but after a first round of talks with Gill, it is clear that Federico Pastorello, his agent, will seek a significant improvement in the left back's pay.

It remains to be seen what impact the retention of Brown will have on the future of Gerard Piqué, who would be forgiven for hoping that his team-mate left to lessen the competition for places. In the absence of Nemanja Vidic, Piqué has started the past two matches alongside Ferdinand in central defence, but he said this week that he is unsettled and is tempted by the idea of returning to Spain. United would prefer to keep him, but they may decide otherwise if they are unable to persuade him to sign an extension to his contract, which expires at the end of next season.

Piqué may be in line for another disappointment tomorrow evening, with Vidic hoping to return from a knee injury to play against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park. There is more good news for United, with Darren Fletcher hoping to resume light training in the coming days after three weeks on the sidelines with a knee injury. The Scotland midfield player is unlikely to be available for first-team action for two weeks, but he has set his sights on a place in the squad for the Champions League final in Moscow on May 21, if United get there.

- Mark Hughes has said that he will be the first in the queue if Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes are squeezed out by Manchester United’s next batch of young stars. The Blackburn Rovers manager, whose team face United at Ewood Park tomorrow, had his playing career at Old Trafford cut short by the emergence of Sir Alex Ferguson’s “Golden Generation” and Giggs, 34, and Scholes, 33, are beginning to come under pressure from players such as Nani and Anderson.

“If players like Giggs and Scholes came on the market, then everybody would be interested, irrespective of age,” Hughes said. “They have the capacity to affect games at Premier League level.”