David Beckham might be leaving Manchester United for £30m this summer - but he could still find himself playing at St Mary's next season!

After a storm of publicity over the past few months, Barcelona have agreed a fee with United for Beckham's services in what would be one of English football's biggest and most talked about transfers.

But, with Barcelona out of the hunt for a Champions' League spot in Spain, the Catalan club can hope at best to be in the UEFA Cup - along with Saints. The Nou Camp side currently sit eighth in La Liga with two games left to push themselves into the top six for an automatic UEFA Cup slot.

Otherwise, they will enter this summer's InterToto Cup to try and qualify for Europe, and that would mean that Beckham reporting early for pre-season training - just for the chance to be in the same hat as Saints.

Beckham's advisors said last night they had no intention of meeting with Joan Laporta, the Barcelona presidential candidate who they accuse of using their man as a "political pawn" after Manchester United admitted in a statement: "Club officials have met Mr Laporta and this has resulted in an offer being made for the transfer of David Beckham to Barcelona.

"This offer is subject to a number of conditions and critically to both Mr Laporta being elected President on Sunday, June 15, and Barcelona subsequently reaching agreement with David on his personal contract.

"We can confirm that, in the event that all of the conditions are fulfilled, the offer would be acceptable."

Beckham's impending exit from Old Trafford would lead to a spending spree by United boss Sir Alex Ferguson that could lead to other big names leaving the club, which could have implications for Saints with both Antti Niemi and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer having been the subject of transfer rumours recently.