Football: Rush links up with Dalglish

Ian Rush last night became the latest Liverpool player of yesteryear to move to Newcastle when he signed a one-year deal with the club with an option for a further year. He was granted a free transfer from Leeds, where he has reportedly been unsettled since the arrival of George Graham as manager.

The 35-year-old Welsh international will be eligible to take part in the Champions' League group stage if Newcastle progress past Croatia Zagreb (they are 2-1 up after the first leg of the preliminary round), and may be called upon to deputise for the injured Alan Shearer.

The Newcastle manager, Kenny Dalglish, who earlier this week also signed the 33-year-old John Barnes on a free transfer from Liverpool, joked yesterday: "We are developing our youth policy.''

Rush's move to St James' Park reunites him not only with Dalglish, under whom he played at Anfield, but also the former Liverpool forwards Barnes and the 36-year-old Peter Beardsley. All four were part of Liverpool's Championship-winning team in the 1987-88 season.

Leicester City yesterday completed the signing of striker Tony Cottee, who is returning to England after a spell in Malaysia with Selangor, the club he joined from West Ham last season.

Cottee, 32, joined Leicester in a pounds 500,000 deal on a two year contract, and is eligible to play for the Foxes in the Uefa Cup. He said: "Malaysia were only three years into their professional league and I was not ready to be put out to grass. I missed England, my home, my family and wanted to come back. "Now it is up to me to prove that I am good enough to win a first-team place at Leicester.''

The Manchester United defender David May yesterday signed a new pounds 3m deal that will keep him at Old Trafford until 2003. Martin Edwards, the United chairman agreed the six-year, pounds 10,000-a-week contract in order to avoid the possibility of losing the player for nothing at the end of the season, when his current contract would have expired.