Manchester United yesterday hinted at the tantalising possibility of Milan's Patrick Kluivert and Aston Villa's Dwight Yorke forging an enviable and potentially lethal attacking partnership at Old Trafford next season.

For the moment the prospect of the pair joining forces is little more than a pleasant, recurring daydream for the ambitious United manager Alex Ferguson, but with the wind of change still blowing through the corridors of arguably football's wealthiest club, anything and everything is still possible.

"It doesn't mean our interest in Dwight has dropped, because it hasn't," said the United chairman Martin Edwards.

John Gregory, the Villa manager, has accepted that United will not give up their fight to sign Yorke, even if they acquire Kluivert. "Perhaps Alex Ferguson sees Kluivert and Yorke playing together but in different roles, and for that reason I expect them to continue their pursuit of our player," he said.

United have had a £9 million bid for Kluivert accepted by the Milan club. They must now persuade Kluivert to swap Italy for the Premiership.

Kluivert will demand £40,000 a week over the course of a four-year contract, but the plc arm of United will not permit any employee to earn a basic salary of more than £20,000 a week.

The payment of an annual bonus in the region of £1 million would solve the problem.

Ferguson has given himself time and space in which to manoeuvre, having accepted that he will be unable to sign Kluivert or Yorke before tomorrow's registration deadline for the Champions' League second qualifying round.

United will play the Polish side LKS Lodz in Europe next month and if, as seems probable, they should progress to the group phase, the registration of any new player would have to be made before August 20th.

But if Ferguson were able to include Andy Cole in a package sufficiently enticing to net Yorke and was then able to sell Teddy Sheringham to the highest bidder, his dream strike force might come together before the Premiership season opens in a fortnight.

Gregory said last night that he had sent David Unsworth home yesterday to think about his future at Aston Villa. "He did not train with us and apparently his dinner would have been thrown in the bin if he had not made it back home by 1 p.m."

Unsworth, a central defender, is ready to leave Villa for his former club Everton only a week after signing from West Ham United for £3 million.