Granville in talks to seal capital comeback with Palace

The Manchester City defender Danny Granville is set to join Crystal Palace after the two clubs agreed a fee of £500,000.

Granville is currently sorting out personal terms with the Selhurst Park club that would formally seal his return to London after three and a half years in the north with City and Leeds United. The 26-year-old played for Chelsea in 1997-98 and was part of the side that won the European Cup Winners' Cup final in Stockholm. He was sold to Leeds for £1.6m a month later before moving to Maine Road for £1m.

Everton's Thomas Gravesen has told the club he will leave before his contract runs out. The Danish international midfielder is a crowd favourite at Goodison Park, but he has criticised the way the cash-strapped club is run.

Gravesen is tied to Everton until 2005, but said: "I can't imagine seeing out my deal. The problem is that the club simply does not have enough money to create a decent team."

The Burnley manager Stan Ternent is trying to sign Stockport County's Finnish striker Shefki Kuqi in a £500,000 deal.

The Scottish Football Association's chief executive David Taylor is confident it can meet its own deadline for unveiling the new Scotland manager. The SFA's executive committee hope to name Craig Brown's successor in time for the draw for the next European Championship, which takes place on 25 January.

Numerous coaches, such as Berti Vogts, Nevio Scala, Philippe Troussier, Roy Hodgson and Bruce Rioch, have all been linked with the post and several have publicly expressed an interest in the job.

Taylor revealed the SFA has now whittled down the list to a "small" number of people but was tight-lipped about whether it would appoint a foreigner for the first time. He said: "We are now getting towards the end of the procedure for choosing the next manager. So far it's all gone to plan and we hope to meet the deadline. We have a short list that is quite small but I won't give away any clues."

The Motherwell manager Eric Black is to appeal against the red card given to Greg Strong on Boxing Day.

Strong was involved in an altercation with the St Johnstone player Ross Forsyth and both were dismissed. But television evidence suggested there had been little contact involved and now Black is hoping the SFA will overturn the decision.