Newcastle United manager Glenn Roeder has secured the transfer of Republic of Ireland and Chelsea winger Damien Duff, who has signed a 5-year contract with the Magpies for £10million (€14million) despite interest from both Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.

The 27-year-old Chelsea winger has agreed personal terms with Newcastle United and has only to complete his medical before he completes his switch to the Magpies.

It is understood that Liverpool matched Newcastle's £10m offer but Chelsea were reluctant to sell Duff to one of this season's potential Premiership title rivals.

Duff moved to Chelsea from Blackburn for £17million (€24million) in 2003, and still has a year left on his contract with the Premiership champions, but with the transfer of Germany captain Michael Ballack from Bayern Munich, Duff’s place in the first-team was severely under threat, so he decided on a move to Tyneside.

Duff who, in the past two seasons has won two Premiership titles at Chelsea, has struggled to hold down a regular slot in the Blues’ starting line-up but now, with Newcastle he will be assured of a first-team place, with Magpies boss Glenn Roeder overjoyed about the switch.

Roeder, speaking to Setanta Sports, said: “We’re very, very close, he has just got to get through his medical.

“We’re not expecting any problems and we’re waiting to get the OK from our doctor so it can be rubber-stamped.

“I can't tell you how pleased I am about getting a player of that quality. I would think it will excite our fans as well.

“You can only do one transfer at a time, let’s get Damien into the club first, and hopefully that will be done by Monday afternoon for sure, then we can start talking about the next player.

“But we've got a list of players now that we want to start working our way through.”

Newcastle beat Tottenham Hotspur in the race to sign Duff, who was reported to have completed a medical with Spurs last week, with Tottenham manager Martin Jol, after the earlier summer signings of Dimitar Berbatov, Didier Zokora and Benoit Assou-Ekotto, failing to secure the services of the talented Irish winger.

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