But the club do not envisage any problems and Angel will fly to Birmingham after Christmas to tie
But the club do not envisage any problems and Angel will fly to Birmingham after Christmas to tie up the deal. If all goes to plan he could make his Villa debut at home against Leicester City on 30 December.Signing Angel will end John Gregory's search to find a new striker after the price for the Villa manager's long-time target, Benedict McCarthy of Celta Vigo, was increased from £13m to £14m. Bayern Munich were also interested in signing Angel but he had expressed a desire to play in the Premiership.Angel's signing will break Villa's previous transfer record of £7m which was paid by the then manager, Brian Little, to Liverpool for Stan Collymore three and a half years ago. Gregory will hope that Angel delivers more for the club than Collymore did; this season Angel has scored 17 goals in 17 games in Argentina for River Plate, and he has scored once in eight appearances for Colombia in World Cup qualifying matches.Gregory said: "I have said for quite a while that we have a comfort zone up front in terms of not having enough competition among the strikers. Juan will provide that and his goalscoring record is excellent, but he is technically also a very talented player. His record year by year with River Plate has got better."Keane appeared at a news conference at Elland Road yesterday and promised to put his Italian troubles behind him by helping to ensure that Leeds can launch another European Champions' League campaign next season. He will be part of that so long as Leeds turn his loan move into a permanent transfer at a cost of £12m.The 20-year-old Republic of Ireland striker said: "There are so many young players at Leeds and we are definitely going places.
I am hoping we can bring some trophies and silverware to Leeds. I think we can win the European Cup."Keane's move ends a five-month spell in Serie A after joining Internazionale from Coventry City. His problems began virtually from the moment he arrived and discovered that the man who had signed him, Marcello Lippi, was about to be sacked and replaced by Marco Tardelli. As soon as it became clear he was not wanted and that a return to England was on the cards, he made it clear that Leeds was the only club that interested him."I wanted it to work in Italy, but the new manager had his own ideas and I wasn't in them," Keane said.
"I wanted to stay over in Italy but last week the club called me in and said they had accepted a bid from Chelsea. I talked to them but I did not think Chelsea were the best club for me. Inter asked which club would I like to go to and I said Leeds United. I have a lot of friends here."Leeds' manager, David O'Leary, said Keane's signing, which follows the £18m acquisition of West Ham's Rio Ferdinand last month, was another example of his desire to build for long-term success.O'Leary, like Keane a Dubliner, said: "I wanted to do it a certain way, with a certain breed of footballer I wanted to develop a product, not do it with a quick fix. I want to lay down the foundations for years."With injuries early on I was under a bit of pressure.
We could have made panic buys but three or four months later I have my best players back I have my own agenda. I set out to get Rio Ferdinand and Robbie and the chairman has got them for me. We want a couple more and hopefully we can get them."Keane's summer signing will take O'Leary's spending to £71m but the Leeds chairman, Peter Ridsdale, does not appear likely to finish the spree."Never say never," Ridsdale said "You can't ever say that's the end. We aspire to be a top football club in this country and Europe. If we believe there are players who could fit in we have demonstrated we will bring them here. We gave David O'Leary a six-year contract at the start of the season because we wanted to send a signal that we don't do things for the short term. There is no pressure on him other than a burning ambition to succeed.".
