Football: Merson relishes the challenge at Middlesbrough

Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, has defended his decision to sell Paul Merson, who has joined Middlesbrough on a deal worth a reported pounds 20,000 a week.

"You are never happy when you lose a player of Merson's calibre," Wenger said. "But it is a good deal for him and a good deal for the club."

He denied the sale was related to other deals. "We haven't agreed to sell him simply so that we could use the money to buy another player," he said.

Merson, who has spent his entire career with Arsenal, passed a medical yesterday and said it took only five minutes of talking it over with his wife to agree to link up with Bryan Robson, and Viv Anderson, who he played with at Highbury.

"It's a challenge for me to get Boro back into the Premiership and then win that as well. I've done everything with Arsenal so I know what's expected," he said.

Peter Ndlovu is poised for a pounds 1.75m move from Coventry City to Birmingham City. The 25-year-old Zimbabwean international striker cost Coventry only pounds 20,000 when he joined them from Bulawayo Highlanders. He will be out of contract next summer and Coventry have decided to cash in on a player who missed a large chunk of last season through injury.

David Burrows, who has failed so far to agree a new contract at Highfield Road, has attracted interest from two Italian clubs. But he still hopes to settle terms with Coventry, who last night signed the Swedish goalkeeper Magnus Hedman from the Stockholm club, AIK Solna.

Chris Waddle will be named Burnley's new manager today and given the go-ahead to make some signings. The former England international will be allowed to sign Glenn Roeder as his assistant, and is also keen to buy John Sheridan from Bolton.

Chic Bates, confirmed as Stoke City's manager yesterday in succession to Lou Macari, has signed Sunderland's former England striker Paul Stewart on a free transfer and a Dutch midfielder, Dick Schreuder, from RKC Waalwijk under the Bosman ruling. Bates had hoped to unveil Mark Stein as his third recruit, but the former Stoke striker has signed a one-year contract to stay with Chelsea.

Blackpool last night appointed Nigel Worthington, the Stoke and Northern Ireland defender, as player-manager in succession to Gary Megson, who has taken over at Stockport.

Bolton's manager, Colin Todd, is hoping to sign a Norwegian striker, Stig Johansen, having watched him play for Bodo Glimt at the weekend.

Temuri Ketsbaia, a 29-year-old Georgian international, has completed his free transfer to Newcastle from AEK Athens, agreeing a three-year contract.

Hearts have offered the former England player Trevor Steven a one-month contract. Their manager, Jim Jefferies, is lining up a trial deal for the 34-year-old midfielder, who was given a free transfer by Rangers in May. Hearts are also giving a trial to Nicky Banger, the former Southampton midfielder.

Southampton's captain, Barry Venison, has been ruled out of the first two months of the new season through injury. Venison, 32, has been out of the game for the last 10 months with a long-term back problem, which restricted him to just two appearances last season.

Fulham have signed Andre Arendse, the South African international goalkeeper, on a three-year contract. The 30-year-old played in South Africa's recent 2-1 defeat by England.

Paolo Di Canio has been told by Celtic that he has no chance of moving to an English Premiership club. The Italian, who refused to join the team's pre-season training in the Netherlands, had been linked with Newcastle and Sheffield Wednesday.

Tomas Brolin missed the start of pre-season training at Leeds after a bird hit the windscreen of his car and caused him to miss his flight from Sweden to England. He caught a later plane.

The Football Association has said that Australia will no longer have a place on its council after Sir David Hill-Wood, their current representative whose family have strong links with Australia, stands down. The Australians had nominated Terry Venables, their national coach.

Fifa, world football's governing body, might not make a decision on the legality of Ronaldo's transfer from Barcelona to Internazionale until the end of this month. That puts the Brazilian's move on hold while Fifa study documents from both clubs, and consider their response to the European Union, whose intervention has further complicated the transfer.