KEEPER TO DEPART UNITED
Farewell Old Trafford: Ben Foster will end his five-year
stay at Manchester United and join Birmingham
Ben Foster is
expected to complete a £6 million move from Manchester United to
Birmingham on Wednesday.
A fee was agreed between the two clubs last week and Foster is
expected in the Midlands on Tuesday for a medical that will seal
his Old Trafford exit.
Although he began last term with high hopes of ousting Edwin
van der Sar from his status as United's
first-choice keeper, Foster's chance disappeared with high-profile
mistakes against Manchester City and Sunderland during a two-month
period at the start of the campaign when the veteran Dutchman was
missing through injury.
Despite these blunders, Foster was handed successive England
starts, against Belarus and Brazil, leading to an expectation he
would claim a place in Fabio
Capello's World Cup squad.
Instead, Ferguson kept him on the sidelines for almost the
entire remainder of the season, meaning the 27-year-old was not one
of the men in Capello's provisional squad when he named it last
week.
After five years at United, two of which were spent on loan at
Watford, Foster had accepted there was no future for him at the
club, especially as Sir Alex
Ferguson persuaded Van der Sar to sign another year's
contract extension.
As Birmingham needed a keeper once Joe Hart returned to Manchester City
following his season-long loan, Blues boss Alex McLeish wasted no time in stepping in
to make Foster his first signing of the summer.
