Spurs swoop riles Sir Alex

MANCHESTER United manager Alex Ferguson has accused Tottenham of “manipulating the rules” in signing his former 
defender Ezekiel Fryers and urged the Premier League to stop the player’s registration.

The 20-year-old was out of contract at United in the close season. He looked set to join Spurs but the clubs failed to agree a compensation package. England youth international Fryers then moved to Standard Liege but completed a £3m transfer to Spurs on Thursday.

“We expected that,” said Ferguson yesterday. “I think it’s a blatant manipulation of the rules. They tried to buy him off us and we’d been looking for a certain figure – they wouldn’t pay it but asked if they could take him down there on trial and at that time he was out of contract in June. He went down on trial. They then said they weren’t prepared to pay the money and all of a sudden he signed for Standard Liege.

“We knew immediately and suspected that he would return to Tottenham in January and that’s happened.”