Almost there

West Ham and the companies owned by Kia Joorabchian are poised to settle the Carlos Tévez affair once and for all Friday, although the £2 million pound settlement could fuel a further challenge from Sheffield United.

The deal would send the cash to West Ham in return for the Irons dissolving their registration of Tévez. Joorabchian also would agree to end his suit in the High Court against West Ham. For the Irons, well, Tévez wasn't going to play for Upton Park again any more, unfortunately. This settlement should largely end the affair altogether, and do so before anything embarassing to the Hammers or the Premier League has been revealed. That said, I don't know that there was anything new that could be revealed that was embarassing, frankly. It doesn't seem like there is anything that has been left uncovered with this story.

Sheffield United's Kevin McCabe is quoted near the end of this story as saying that West Ham withheld important documents from the Premier League, but other reports earlier this week indicated that that is not the case, that the league had a copy of the second contract, one which was never executed, according to West Ham.

McCabe has more of a point in his quote in this Telegraph story in saying that West Ham presented themselves as having "clean hands" to the league because the agreement came before Eggert Magnusson's group took over. Yet, let's face it, there would not have been an agreement of this nature between West Ham and Joorabchian's companies if the previous owners hadn't entered into this arrangement. Furthermore, while the second agreement appears to have granted Joorabchian's companies the right to buy Tévez out of his contract in July, that's a far cry from an agreement that would have allowed Joorabchian to move Tévez during the January transfer window. Yes, it appears to still fall afoul of Premiership rules on third-party ownership, but that deal would have lessened the third-party influence over the player, and made it much like a one-year loan deal, essentially.

The Guardian reports that the FA and the Premier League are expected to give their nod of approval to the deal tomorrow. The sooner this situation is finished, the better, at least for us fans.

Also, a final note: It looks like the transfer of Kieron Dyer is going to go through, with West Ham paying Newcastle £6 million.