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Friday, August 3, 2007

Anderson and Hargreaves debut - Manchester United vs Doncaster Rovers

New signings Anderson and Owen Hargreaves could make their first United appearances against Doncaster, as revealed by Sir Alex Ferguson earlier this week.

"We'll use the Doncaster and Peterborough games for Hargreaves, Anderson, Silvestre and Fletcher," said the United boss.

"The players who didn't play (against Inter Milan) on Wednesday will be involved in those two games."

Source: ManUtd.com

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Tevez, finally coming to Man Utd?


West Ham are expected to announce tomorrow that they will release Carlos Tevez from his contract and registration after they tonight agreed a deal with his representatives.

The end of the dispute will then allow the Argentina striker to pursue a move to Manchester United

The agreement, which still needs to be formally ratified by the Premier League and Football Association, will see the Hammers paid between £1million and £3million in compensation.

The deal will also mean the settlement of the £30million lawsuit brought against West Ham by Tevez's agent Kia Joorabchian.

Lengthy talks today ended with an agreement between both parties and tomorrow the league and the FA should sign off the deal - Premier League lawyers have been kept up to date the progress of discussions.

Joorabchian will then be able to try to sew up an agreement with United to allow the striker to join up before the start of the season.

In the unlikely event of either side having a last-minute change of heart, the only other avenue would be a lengthy High Court battle and there has been an acknowledgement that that would be in neither party's interests.

Manchester United have already indicated a desire to take Tevez on the same sort of loan package that saw Argentina midfielder Javier Mascherano move to Liverpool last season.

That deal took some weeks before it was signed off by the Premier League but with that transfer having already been picked over by the lawyers, a similar deal for Tevez should go through much quicker.

The agreement with West Ham brings an end to a long-running and painful saga for the club that began when former chairman Terry Brown signed Tevez and Mascherano under banned third-party agreements last summer.

The club were fined £5.5million as a result by a disciplinary commission in April and that led to an unsuccessful legal challenge by Sheffield United, who claimed they should have been docked points.

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Newcastle closing to sign United's Smith and Cacapa?

Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce is closing in on the signatures of both Manchester United striker Alan Smith and Brazilian defender Cacapa.

The Magpies have agreed a £6million fee for Smith, who is deemed surplus to requirements at Old Trafford, while Lyon captain Cacapa is scheduled to have a medical today.

'I am hoping that the Alan Smith deal will go through today,' Allardyce said.

'He has other clubs to consider and I am hoping we are top of his list.'

The 31-year-old Cacapa, has reportedly been on Tyneside since Sunday, and the Newcastle boss is hopeful a deal can be agreed quickly.

'He is a top player and we will be delighted if we can pull this off as we regard him as a big capture,' Allardyce told the Newcastle Chronicle.

'Our fans should not be put off by the fact they may not have heard of Cacapa because he has certainly been heard of in Brazil and France.

'He has been captain of Lyon for the past five years and for every one of those five years they won the French title, so obviously he has a lot of Champions League experience.

'That's why we are hoping that everything goes okay with his medical and that we can agree a deal with his people because we believe he would be a terrific capture for us.

'Unfortunately, he has been back in Brazil and he has had no pre-season work, and in normal circumstances we would not consider him for our opening game at Bolton a week on Saturday, but it all depends on what type of injuries we have.'

Source: Soccernet.com

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West Ham agree fee for Newcastle's Dyer

Newcastle United midfielder Kieron Dyer has been given permission to speak to West Ham United after the two clubs agreed an undisclosed fee for the 28-year-old.

Magpies manager Sam Allardyce had earlier insisted a £4million bid for the England international was well below Newcastle's valuation. The Hammers have returned with an improved offer, nearer the £6m mark.

The player is understood to be keen to move south to be closer to his family.

Allardyce said: 'We've agreed a deal so you'd have thought that he will finish up where he needs to finish up to solve his family problems.

'From our point of view and from his point of view it's a satisfactory result. There was a need to do it as quickly as we possibly could and we've worked all out to do that and we've finally resolved the situation.'

Although Dyer has not officially left St James' Park, Allardyce has already turned his attention to replacing the versatile 28-year-old.

He said: 'My job now is to replace him, which shouldn't take too long I don't think, and then move on to other players in other positions as quickly as I can or at the same time.

'I think we'll be close by the end of the week to maybe one or two players, I would hope.

'Then after that I would look to get at least another two or maybe three in because if Kieron goes, whoever comes in to replace him, that's only one for one, so it's not actually improving the squad in terms of strength in depth.

'There's still three or four players need to be got on top of whoever we replace Kieron with.' and it is now up to Dyer to thrash out personal terms.

Reports in Wednesday's media claimed Dyer has been subjected to abuse from some Magpies fans since it became clear he was hoping to leave.

Chairman Chris Mort has expressed his concern at the effect that could have on attempts to overhaul the squad.

Dyer was booed during the weekend's friendly win over Juventus and it has been alleged that his house has been targeted by an egg-throwing mob.

Mort warned: 'We have to make all our current players and potential new signings see Newcastle as a great place to live.

'It would be disastrous for this sort of behaviour to be repeated.'

Source: Soccernet.com

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