Tottenham last night revealed that Newcastle had accepted their offer of

£6 million for Les Ferdinand and had given them permission to talk to the England star with a view to agreeing personal terms.

The north London club, who last week signed Ferdinand's Newcastle colleague

David Ginola for £2 million, hope to complete a deal with the 30-year-

old striker over the weekend.

Tottenham's operations manager Daniel Sugar said: "The situation is that

Tottenham Hotspur have agreed with Newcastle United tonight a fee of £6

million for the transfer of Les Ferdinand.

"Newcastle have confirmed to us that they accept that and have given us permission to talk to the player.

"No-one else has been given permission to talk to the player and all there is for us to do is to agree personal terms and a medical."

Sugar added: "We are hoping to talk to him over the weekend and hopefully he will be our player by the start of the season."

A move to White Hart Lane will mean a reunion with Tottenham manager Gerry

Francis - Ferdinand's manager at Queens Park Rangers, where he first made a name for himself.

He joined Newcastle two seasons ago for £6 million from QPR and last season shared 49 goals with England captain Alan Shearer.

But Ferdinand claimed at the weekend that he felt he was being "forced out"

of Newcastle and his fears looked to be well founded when Southampton revealed that the Magpies had inquired about their Norwegian striker Egil Ostenstad.

Ferdinand has also been linked with a move to Everton but manager Howard

Kendall admitted yesterday that the Merseysiders were not favourites to sign the player, who has long been rumoured to prefer a return to London.

Newcastle manager Kenny Dalglish refused at the weekend to be drawn on speculation surrounding the future of Ferdinand but the club's board appear to have found the chance to get their money back on a player now in his 30s too tempting to resist.

If Spurs can complete a deal they will be able to hail Ferdinand as the ideal replacement for fellow England striker Teddy Sheringham who joined Manchester

United in a £3.5 million deal in June.

German striker Jurgen Klinsmann, who many at White Hart Lane hoped would leave Bayern Munich for Tottenham Hotspur, has already made an impact with his new club Sampdoria, scoring five goals in a 16-0 friendly victory. New coach

Luis Menotti commented: "We must be on the right track", Klinsmann is replacing

Sampdoria's veteran striker Roberto Mancini, now at Lazio.Also in Italy

Fiorentina captain Gabriel Batistuta has two aims next season - the World and

UEFA cups. "I'll be at the World Cup finals," he said. "I've spoken to (coach

Daniel) Passarella and I'm convinced he'll call me up. Argentina are doing well now, they've almost qualified and they don't need me. The coach virtually said we'd meet up in France, provided I have a really good season - which is one more reason to do well." Batistuta believes Fiorentina, now under new coach Alberto

Malesani, can win a UEFA Cup slot over the next season, after finishing midtable last time.