Madrid move for Heinze

The messy Gabriel Heinze saga has finally reached its conclusion after the Manchester United defender agreed a four-year contract with Real Madrid.

Heinze was still considering whether to launch an appeal against the Barclays Premier League decision to block his preferred to Liverpool when Real made their move.

United, aware the 29-year-old's Old Trafford future was non-existent, were quick to agree a fee with the Spanish champions, believed to be well in excess of £5million, forcing the issue back into Heinze's court.

Although the Argentina World Cup star still wanted to explore the Liverpool option, he knew that by dragging the situation out even further, his chances of moving out of England before the August 31 transfer deadline would effectively disappear.

Having already had one lot of talks with Real earlier in the summer, Heinze has now opted to join the Spanish champions instead - a move which will no doubt disappoint Rafael Benitez, who expressed his disgust for the verdict reached by the Premier League 24 hours earlier.

In contrast, United will be glad to get rid of a player who became a firm fans' favourite in the immediate aftermath of his move from Paris St Germain in 2004 but became a pariah amongst supporters for so actively pursuing a move to their fierce north-west rivals.

Heinze must still pass a medical but providing there are no problems, he will join Bernd Schuster's squad within the next 48 hours as a replacement for long-serving Brazilian Roberto Carlos, who left the Bernabeu for Turkey this summer.

The move concludes a story which dogged United throughout their Far East tour and left Sir Alex Ferguson bemused about the player's intentions.

Those were made perfectly clear earlier this week when Heinze attending the Premier League hearing himself to claim a letter, signed by Red Devils chief executive David Gill, confirming a fee at which United would be willing to do business, constituted a promise to sell.

The panel disagreed, having also heard the startling revelation of Crystal Palace chief executive Phil Alexander who told the three-man inquiry team he was approached by one of Heinze's representatives with a proposal for the player to join the Eagles before then being moved on to Liverpool.