Premier League

Premiership Champions Manchester United are a club that refuse to stand still, hence their serial domination of the Premiership, and the £18m that they will receive from Real Madrid for England captain David Beckham (which may rise to £25m depending on Madrid's Champions League performances), who's transfer will officially go through on 2 July, should assist their summer spending spree. In the meantime, Kyle Moran has arrived from Shelbourne, while John O'Shea is set to sign a new £25,000 a week contract upon his return from holiday in the Caribbean, but Laurent Blanc, Lee Roache and David May have all been released.

Also expect current United States No 1 Tim Howard to make a £1.8m move from Major League Soccer's Metro Stars on a four-year deal, despite Fabien Barthez's recent protestations about being happy at Old Trafford, although whether Ronaldinho, who is currently playing for Brazil in the Confederations Cup in France, joins is open to debate.

Closest challengers Arsenal are in talks with Harry Kewell over a possible move and made an offer of £6m to Leeds United last Friday evening, although it is believed that Peter Reid would prefer a deal involving England Under-21 international Jermaine Pennant or Ray Parlour. The club have also been linked with William Gallas, Madrid's Guti and Tottenham Hotspur's Stephen Carr, who has a £4m get-out clause in his contract, now that Oleg Luzhny has left after four years at Highbury. However, David Seaman's departure to Manchester City, after 13 years with the club, has left manager Arsène Wenger in need of a keeper. He has three potential replacements lined up after deals to sign both Barcelona-bound Rüstu Reçber and Christian Abbiati, who has since signed a new contract with European champions AC Milan, broke down. The Gunners have made an offer for Spain international Santiago Cañizares, who will address the issue of personal terms after the conclusion of the Spanish season on Sunday, while Nantes' Mickaël Landreau and current France No 1 Grégory Coupet, are back-up choices.

Not surprisingly for a team managed by former England coach Kevin Keegan, City have been busy lining up a whole host of new players for their UEFA Cup challenge next season, although to date only 33-year-old former Germany international Michael Tarnat has pledged his future to the club, having joined for a year on a free transfer from Bayern München, while Peter Schmeichel has retired and Djamel Belmadia has returned to Marseille having not been offered a new contract. Seaman joins on a one-year contract worth £25,000 a week.

Newcastle United and Chelsea, who this August will both be attempting to qualify for next seasons Champions League, have been embarking on contrasting transfer strategies. The former are been linked with a whole host of players across the continent to add to the capture of Lee Bowyer on a free transfer at the start of the month. Again Ronaldinho's name crops up, Sir Bobby Robson has offered to double his wages to almost £40,000-a-week in a deal involving £10m-rated Laurent Robert. Others being mentioned with St James' include Carr, Brett Emerton and Gareth Southgate, while Nikos Dabizas, Clarence Acuna, Robbie Elliott, Jamie McClen and Wayne Quinn have all been transfer-listed.

In contrast the Blues have released Jody Morris, Ed de Goey and Albert Ferrer to ease their wage bill, while arrivals at the Bridge simply include two keepers on free transfers, Chievo's Marco Ambrosio and Sunderland's Jurgen Macho. Links with Cafu, who has since joined European champions AC Milan, Joe Cole and Hidetoshi Nakata, have so far come to nothing, while this week it is Fulham's Steed Malbranque that is apparently on his way to Chelsea. However, perhaps the club's most important signing will be to convince Gianfranco Zola to stay put for one more season.

Of the three other teams taking part in the UEFA Cup, it is Liverpool who have been making most of the headlines regarding new signings, although as yet only Fulham's 27-year-old Republic of Ireland right-back Steve Finnan has actually put pen to paper on a deal that will cost the Reds about £3.5m as of 1st July. Exiting Anfield on free transfers though are Pegguy Arphexad, Patrik Berger, to newly-promoted Portsmouth, Bernard Diomede, Vegard Heggem and Abel Xavier, while England international Steven Gerrard is set to sign a new contract, and could be joined at the club next season by Auxerre's Jean-Alain Boumsong.

Blackburn Rovers have constantly been in the papers over the possible departure of £15m-rated winger Damien Duff to either Liverpool or United, while manager Graeme Souness has this week been discussing personal terms with Glasgow Rangers captain Lorenzo Amoruso over a £1.4m transfer, although his second bid for Millwall's Steven Reid was turned down. Meanwhile, Henning Berg and Keith Gillespie have both been released, with the latter possibly set to join up with his former manager Keegan at City, and Stuttgart Kickers' goalkeeper David Yelldell is poised to sign for the club after a successful trial last season.

FA Cup runners-up Southampton have let striker Kevin Davies go, but added Darren Kenton from Norwich City on a free.

First Division champions Portsmouth have been the busiest of the three promoted teams in the transfer market, offering contracts to Eyal Berkovic, 37-year-old Teddy Sheringham, Dabizas, Croatia captain Boris Zivkovic (free), Dejan Stefanovic (£2m), and Jamaican duo Joel McAnuff and Nigel Reo-Cokerwho (£1m), who could all join Berger at Fratton Park next season, but Gianluca Festa has left the club to join Cagliari.

Leicester City, who finished runners-up to Pompey last May, have strengthened a defence that could be extremely busy next season with the addition of experienced centre-back Steve Howey from City on a one-year deal, subject to a medical, for a fee believed to be in the region of £300,000, but manager Micky Adams has decided to off-load Darren Eadie, Stefan Oakes, Simon Royce, Nicky Summerbee, while former England goalkeeper Tim Flowers has retired.

Play-off winners Wolverhampton Wanderers have, as yet, failed to bring in any new faces, but leaving Molineux are Michael Branch, Mohammed Camara and Ludovic Pollet.

Bolton Wanderers manager Sam Allardyce has gained a reputation of late for picking up some of the bargains of the season, so no one should be surprised to hear that his sole acquisition to date, midfielder Stylianos Giannakopoulos, who has signed a three-year contract as of 1st July having joined on a free from Greek champions Olympiakos, was the man who inflicted on Spain their first home qualifying defeat for 12 years when Greece left Zaragoza with a 1-0 win earlier this month.

Allardyce has also released Chris Armstrong, while Paul Warhurst and Colin Hendry have both retired and club captain Gudni Bergsson has eventually decided to call it a day and return to Iceland to take up an alternative career as a lawyer.

However, Florent Laville, who signed on loan from Lyon in the January transfer window and played a major part in the club's successful relegation battle, will return to the French champions, having been offered a two-year deal by Bolton, unless he is given the longer contract that he desires.

Ipswich Town's 29-year-old skipper Matt Holland made a late u-turn on his proposed move to Portsmouth this week, opting instead for Charlton Athletic, in a deal that could rise to £900,000 if the Addicks remain in the Premiership for three years. And joining him could be Luzhny and Sheringham, while departing the Valley are Jesper Blomqvist, John Robinson, Tahar El Khalej and Robbie Mustoe. So to could be England international Paul Konchesky, who handed in a transfer request after Chris Powell decided to accept a one-year extension to his contract.

Aston Villa have signed a new manager since the end of the season, David O'Leary, although most of the transfer activity appears to be heading in only one direction, and that's out of Villa Park. Veterans Ian Taylor and Alan Wright have been released, unsettled Turkey international centre-back Alpay Özalan has rejected a move back to his former club Fenerbahçe, while O'Leary's hopes of signing Bowyer and Dwight Yorke failed.

Meanwhile Midlands rivals Birmingham City are not resting on their laurels after a fine debut season in the Premiership, a campaign in which they actually finished higher than Villa, and have brought in Monaco full-back Franck Jurietti on a one-year loan deal with a view to a three-year contract. However, bids of £1.5m and £3.5m for Trevor Sinclair and David Dunn respectively were rejected by their clubs West Ham United and Blackburn. A subsequent bid of £5.5m for Dunn, consisting of £4m up front and the rest based on whether the club remains in the Premiership for the next two years, is being considered by Blackburn.

Pierre van Hooijdonk, who Spurs and Portsmouth are also tracking, could join Dunn at St Andrews next season having been offered a contract in excess of his current £1m-a-year deal with Feyenoord, who he scored 28 goals for last campaign. Leaving the club though are Andy Marriott, Tommy Mooney and Steve Vickers, but keeper Ian Bennett has signed a new contract until June 2005.

Spurs have been linked with just about every striker other than Pele and George Best, although 25-year-old West Ham forward Frédéric Kanouté remains the most likely to replace the departed Sheringham and Steffen Freund, while Middlesbrough apparently are about to swoop for Sunderland's former England frontman Kevin Phillips having let go of Alen Boksic, Ben Roberts and Tony Vidmar and Leeds hope that their recent offer of a two-year contract worth £50,000-a-week will keep Australia international Kewell at Elland Road, but Jacob Burns and Teddy Lucic have both been released.

The two quietest Premiership clubs have been Fulham and Everton, with the Londoners allowing John Collins and Bjarne Goldbaek to depart. Although the Merseysiders have finally tied up the deal to permanently bring Joseph Yobo to Goodison Park for a total fee of £4.5m, of which £1m was paid last summer, while at the same time releasing the disappointing Juliano Rodrigo.

Nationwide League

In Division One, Watford have agreed terms with Barnsley for former striker Bruce Dyer, a possible replacement for Stoke City-bound Gifton Noel Williams, who has left Vicarage Road on a free.

Sheffield United, who finished third last season, but lost in the final of the play-offs, have been boosted by the news that England Under-21 international Phil Jagielka has signed a one-year extension to his contract that will now run until 2004, however playmaker Michael Brown, who has a year left on his current deal, has rejected the club's offer of a new contract and could join Everton.

Gillingham have brought in Burnley defender Ian Cox on a free, veteran West Bromwich Albion striker Bob Taylor is set to join Cheltenham, and he could be replaced at the Hawthorns by the man who scored direct from a corner for F.Y.R. Macedonia against England, CSKA Sofia midfielder Artim Sakiri, for a fee of £60,000 subject to a work permit. And Coventry City have picked up Dele Adebola on a free transfer after the striker turned down Crystal Palace's offer of a new contract.

Second Division Queens Park Rangers, who just failed to gain promotion to Division One when they were beaten by Cardiff in the play-off final, have already started to strengthen for next season following their decision to transfer-list Richard Langley after he rejected the club's offer of a new contract, by signing 28-year-old French striker Eric Sabin on a free from Swindon Town. However, perhaps the biggest transfer story from the Nationwide this month has been Stockport County manager Carlton Palmer's decision to offer his former England international team-mate Paul Gascoigne the chance to join the club.

From Richard Morgan