Football: United stay on Yorke's trail

JOHN GREGORY, the Aston Villa manager, wants his striker Dwight Yorke to forget about his aborted move to Manchester United.

Yorke seems certain to start the season with Villa, who have placed a pounds 16m price tag on the Trinidad and Tobago international. United are refusing to pay anything like that much, and Gregory said: "It will not be easy for Dwight, because he felt he was going to Manchester United. But there are 40,000 fans at Villa who will be very pleased. I'm sure he will get over it."

United's chairman, Martin Edwards, admitted: "Our spending for the summer could now be over because we cannot get who we want." The Old Trafford manager, Alex Ferguson, still has hopes of rescuing the deal, however.

"I was hoping to get Yorke here, and I must admit that was really important to us," Ferguson said. "However, I'm not giving up on the deal. Villa have made it impossible to do business so far because of their valuation. The pounds 16m price tag is crazy - they're pricing the player out of the move he wanted. It's unfortunate for the lad, because he'd have been a terrific player here, but I won't give up hope."

Another striker being denied a move to the team he apparently wants to join is Thierry Henry. The French international has said he wants to join his former coach, Arsene Wenger, at Arsenal, but his club, Monaco, want him to stay.

"Thierry made his name at Monaco. We're counting on him. He's staying, period," Monaco's president, Jean-Louis Campora, said yesterday.

Campora intends to offer Henry an extension to his contract, which has three years to run. He also complained that Henry's agents were putting pressure on the player, France's top scorer at the World Cup, to seek a transfer.