Kolo Touré is scheduled to leave Arsenal's training camp in Austria this evening to fly back to England to complete his move to Manchester City after the two clubs agreed a fee of £14m for the defender.
Touré is expected to fly directly into Manchester to take a medical examination tomorrow and finalise the personal terms of a contract that will see him join the growing band of players at City who earn in excess of £100,000 a week.
He will become the second Arsenal player to move from Arsenal to City this summer, following Emmanuel Adebayor for a combined outlay of £39m. In total, City have now made six signings in preparation for the new season, with Roque Santa Cruz, Gareth Barry, Carlos Tevez and Stuart Taylor being added to the club's payroll for a total of £94m.
An extensive recruitment programme, overseen by the billionaire Abu Dhabi royal family, has been offset by the departure of 12 players, but Touré's imminent arrival consolidates City's position as the biggest spenders in the Premier League by some distance this summer.
To put it into context, Manchester United have spent around £17m in the same period, despite banking £80m from Real Madrid for the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo. Chelsea have spent around £20m whereas Liverpool have made only one major signing, Portsmouth's Glen Johnson, for £18m, and Arsenal have made a considerable profit, their one big-money recruit being Thomas Vermalen, Ajax's Belgium international defender, for £10m.
City now hope to take their summer spending well beyond the £100m mark by prising their last remaining target, Joleon Lescott, away from Everton, their interest in the player remaining enthusiastic despite his club steadfastly refusing to offer them any positive signs.
Information has reached City that Lescott is determined to go through with the transfer but it is also clear that the process of extracting him from a club of Everton's own ambitions may have some distance to go, and will be considerably more complicated than the negotiations for Touré.
Garry Cook, City's executive chairman, and Brian Marwood, a former Arsenal player now working as City's football administrator, established contact with Arsenal towards the end of last week and, since then, the process has been relatively smooth, with Arsène Wenger taking a personal involvement. Arsenal made it clear they were willing to sell the Ivory Coast international as long as they felt the money was right and Touré was enthusiastic about joining a club that first tried to sign him in the January transfer window.
