Ferguson confident of signing Tevez

SOCCER:The English Premier League champions Manchester United are confident Carlos Tevez will be in a position to sign a long-term contract once Argentina's Copa America campaign concludes at the weekend.

Tevez is at the centre of a messy transfer saga involving United, West Ham, the Premier League and his long-time adviser Kia Joorabchian.

A deal, virtually identical to the one which saw Tevez's fellow countryman Javier Mascherano move from West Ham to Liverpool in January, is in place with United, with the 23-year-old only now requiring to pass a medical and sign before officially becoming a £30 million Red Devil. The problem is who United pay the cash to, with the Premier League continuing to insist West Ham should profit as they hold Tevez's registration.

Joorabchian counters this, insisting he still owns a controlling right in the former Corinthians player. With allegations and accusations flying about on all sides - and the validity of the Premier League's crucial decision to let Tevez play in the last three matches of West Ham's successful survival fight on the line - a resolution appears impossible without either legal action or the involvement of world governing body Fifa.

But sources close to United are hopeful a compromise will have been reached by the end of the week which will allow Tevez to fly into Manchester from South America early next week to complete his dream move.

With chief executive David Gill starting a short break, Alex Ferguson opted not to offer a public timescale on the situation. However, the Scot is confident Tevez will eventually be given the green light to join his squad in a transfer he feels will be completely free of the allegations which dogged the striker's initial move to West Ham. "I am sure the outcome will be that we will be taking him, with complete clarity in the deal and no suspicions or anything dodgy," said Ferguson.

United were initially offered Tevez 12 months ago but Ferguson shied away from a deal, claiming he was "unsure" about certain aspects of the move.

Now, he is more certain, although he is unsure exactly why the Premier League have so far refused to sanction the transfer. "There is transparency now and a clarity about the situation," he said. "Unless the Premier League are holding something back that they have not told us about, I don't really know what the problem is because we are following the procedure of Javier Mascherano."

If Tevez does eventually arrive, he will join Ferguson's three other summer signings, two of which, Owen Hargreaves and Nani, were officially unveiled at United's Carrington headquarters this lunchtime.

While the capture of Hargreaves from Bayern Munich represents the end of a 12 month chase, Nani's journey to Old Trafford has taken place a year ahead of schedule, with Ferguson forced to move quickly for the Portugal under-21 star who, like Cristiano Ronaldo, developed a big reputation at Sporting Lisbon.

While admitting the new, massively increased TV deal meant he felt more cash would be spent across the Premier League this summer than has actually happened, Ferguson is aware that, in some areas, his squad might be regarded as too big. Gabriel Heinze, Alan Smith, Kieran Richardson, Giuseppe Rossi and Gerard Pique have all been linked with big-money moves away from Old Trafford. And, although he has not told anyone they can leave, he recognises some players may choose to.

"I don't expect anybody to leave but it may happen because some players will view the situation and think maybe they won't get enough games to satisfy them, but there are no decisions made at the moment," he said.

Meanwhile, Chelsea midfielder Steve Sidwell has been assured he has a significant role at Stamford Bridge this season and is not there to "make up the numbers". The 24-year-old was a free agent at the end of last season and was linked with Newcastle but opted to sign for Jose Mourinho's side.

Mourinho is set to bolster his midfield with Florent Malouda, who has been having a medical and discussing personal terms in London, but Michael Ballack will miss the first part of the pre-season tour to America as he recovers from ankle surgery. Sidwell was on the plane to California, Malouda will join the squad when his move is completed, but Claudio Pizarro was given time off to recover from the Copa America with Peru.

A report in yesterday's sports supplement stated Setanta will broadcast 46 live Premiership matches this coming season. In fact, Setanta will broadcast 79 live matches in Ireland and 46 in Britain. The 79 matches in Ireland will be shown across two Setanta channels - Setanta Sports 1 (67 games ) and Setanta Ireland (12 fixtures). Setanta Sports 1 is a subscriber-based channel, while Setanta Ireland is available on Ntl/chorus as part of their cable package.