A landing pad was being marked out at Manchester United’s Carrington training base this morning as Juan Mata prepares to fly in by helicopter ahead of a medical with the Barclays Premier League champions.

The Spain playmaker will fly north from Battersea Heliport in London before being given a tour of Carrington and meeting David Moyes, the manager. He will then travel to Bridgewater Hospital in Manchester where he will undergo a thorough assessment that could take several hours to complete before finalising a club record £37 million transfer.

Mata, 25, is expected to sign a 4½-year contract with United that will see his salary double to around £140,000 a week. The deal will eclipse the record fee of £30.75 million that United paid Tottenham