Newcastle capture Robert for £10.5m

Newcastle United clinched the signing of Paris St-Germain's French international attacker Laurent Robert for £10.5m. Newcastle's chairman, Freddy Shepherd, met with PSG officials and Robert's representatives to complete the talks before heading to Germany for Newcastle's Intertoto game against 1860 Munich.

Shepherd took charge of the move for Robert, who will be one of the most attractive additions to the Premiership next season. Robert, who will start on about £25,000 a week, was keen to come to Tyneside after rejecting a previous advance from Fulham.

The long-running saga of Fabrizio Ravanelli's move to Derby reached a new, but familiar, stage. The Italian striker said last night: "I will go there on Friday to sign a contract but it is still to be decided whether it is for two or three years."

The Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, has virtually confirmed the imminent departure of the Brazilian Silvinho by giving his No 16 squad shirt to Giovanni van Bronckhorst. The Dutchman, signed from Rangers for £8.5m last month, was expected to appear in the shirt last night in Arsenal's friendly against the Turkish club Kocaelispor in Austria.

With the Spanish club Deportivo La Coruña being linked with the diminutive defender, Arsenal's vice-chairman, David Dein, admitted: "Silvinho is in the early stages of being transferred." Arsenal could recoup about £8m for the left-back, who was midway through a four-year contract.

Wenger's clear-out is already in motion with the departures of two young French midfielders. Guy Demel, 19, has joined Borussia Dortmund, in Germany, for around £200,000 and Guillaume Nolbert is set to sign for the French club Lorient. Arsenal had already banked about £700,000 from the return of another midfielder, Stefan Malz, to Germany with Kaiserslautern.

Frank Leboeuf has completed his move from Chelsea to Marseilles after signing a two-year contract with the French club. The 33-year-old defender, who had one year left on his Chelsea contract, travelled to his native south of France yesterday to finalise the move after a deal was agreed between the clubs.

Coventry City have signed the South Africa striker Phil Masinga on a two-year contract, from the Italian club Bari on a free transfer. He faces a medical at Highfield Road today. Masinga played with Coventry's manager, Gordon Strachan, when the pair were at Leeds United during the 1990s.

"Gordon knows the player very well. He is an excellent signing for us," Bryan Richardson, the Coventry chairman, said. "He is big and strong and can hold the ball up very well, his experience will be invaluable. Masinga is still part of the South African international side and he will be an extremely useful addition to our squad."

The Celtic centre-half Olivier Tebily is wanted by his old manager Steve Bruce at Crystal Palace. Palace are ready to offer around £500,000 for Tebily, a defender Bruce brought to England when he was in charge of Sheffield United.

Tebily has had a tough time at Celtic since John Barnes was replaced as manager by Martin O'Neill, who will let him go to help to finance his move for Leicester City's Matt Elliott.

Bruce is trying to strengthen the defence after taking over at Palace. He also has the Australian Tony Popovic on trial and is impressed by him.

AZ Alkmaar want £2.9m compensation from the striker David Connolly after claiming that the Irish international went back on a verbal agreement to join them. Connolly is poised to sign a three-year deal with Wimbledon, but AZ say he has already accepted their offer.