Tottenham were widely reported Wednesday to be waiting in the wings with a five-million-pound offer for Argentinian star Heinze ready to be lodged as soon as the Bale deal goes through.

Southampton have valued Bale, considered the most promising left-back in Britain, at 10million pounds, nearly twice what United have offered so far.

But the Championship club know that Bale's value will fall if he stays at St Mary's until the end of the season, at which point he will enter the final 12 months of his contract.

That points to a deal being done before the end of the current transfer window on January 31 with Bale tipped to remain at Southampton for the remainder of the season on loan.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is still hoping to do a deal with Bayern Munich for Owen Hargreaves and the high cost of bringing the England midfielder to Manchester means other purchases have to be funded through sales.

That reality could mean the end of Heinze's Old Trafford career, despite the fact that the 28-year-old is hugely popular with the United faithful.

The rugged defender was voted the fans' player of the year in 2004-05 before missing most of last season with a serious knee injury.

Now fit again, Heinze has fallen behind the more attack-minded Patrice Evra for the left-back slot and is behind Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Wes Brown in the battle for a first team place at centreback, where he can also operate.

Blackburn and Bolton meanwhile are involved in a battle to sign former England under-21 midfielder David Dunn after both clubs agreed to meet Birmingham's 2.2-million-pound valuation of the player.

Dunn left Blackburn for Birmingham in 2003, but his time at St Andrews has been blighted by recurring injuries, notably a back problem that caused him to suffer hamstring strains.

Despite that, the 27-year-old passed a medical with Bolton and is now set for a return to the Premiership.

Birmingham boss Steve Bruce, who paid 5.5 million pounds to acquire Dunn, said he felt the player needed a new challenge.

"We feel a change of environment will benefit him but it is a crying shame because we have never seen the best of him at Birmingham."

The long-anticipated move of Blackburn defender Lucas Neill to Liverpool now appears to be in doubt.

According to Wednesday's Daily Mirror, Liverpool have baulked at the Australian international's wage demands.