Southgate closing on record signing Alves

Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate is hoping he can complete a club record deal for Heerenveen striker Afonso Alves this week.

The Brazilian underwent the first part of a medical before watching his prospective new team-mates overcome Wigan 1-0 in a Barclays Premier League clash at the Riverside Stadium last night.

There are still some other technicalities, however, to be finalised before Thursday’s transfer deadline.

Boro must complete negotiations with the Dutch club and then have to await the result of an appeal hearing over a decision to deny Alves a work permit.

Southgate said: “The key for us is to get the deal in place by Thursday. We have a little work to do with Heerenveen and we have to go to an appeal hearing in London about the work permit – but we are doing everything we can to get that done.

“He is keen to come. He is a player we feel can give us and the town a real lift and give us competition for places in those striking positions.”

Alves, 26, has a fine reputation – having netted 35 goals last season. He is expected to cost Boro around £10m, significantly more than the £8.15m they paid for Massimo Maccarone in 2002.

Boro’s pursuit of him has already been complicated by AZ Alkmaar, who claimed they had a pre-contract agreement with the player – but the Dutch FA rejected their case.

Alves must surely have been impressed by the number of chances Boro created for their strikers against Wigan.

Jeremie Aliadiere grabbed the only goal after 18 minutes – but both he and Tuncay Sanli ran the Wigan defence ragged in the first half.

Boro missed a glut of chances to kill the game before the break, and Wigan must have been relieved to see Tuncay leave the field with a hamstring injury after half-an-hour.

Wigan showed some belated signs of life in the second half. But Mark Schwarzer was alert to keep out their best efforts, with fine saves to deny Emile Heskey and Jason Koumas.

“I was really pleased with the first half. We were playing with some freedom and played some terrific, flowing football,” Southgate added. “We opened them up and should have had more than the one goal.

“I think over the course of the game we deserved the result, but it was very tense towards the end.”

Boro’s win took them five points clear of their fellow strugglers Wigan, who dropped into the bottom three as a result.

Latics manager Steve Bruce had opted for attack by lining up new £5m signing Marlon King with Marcus Bent and Heskey up front, but it failed to reap rewards.

King was withdrawn early in the second half with a slight hamstring niggle.

Bruce said: “I thought in the first 10 minutes we were excellent, nice and bright, but then their front two caused us all sorts of problems for a 10 to 15 minute period – and we were lucky to survive.

“I couldn’t wait to get in at half-time, have a word and try to change things. In the second half, I thought we were a bit more like it. We had the three best chances in the second half and we might have got something from the game.

“We didn’t play well in the first half – that was possibly the worst half-an-hour we have had – but we have been playing well lately.”