Pardew swoops on Rennes winger

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew has added winger Sylvain Marveaux to his growing list of close season signings.

Marveaux has agreed to a five-year deal, moving to Tyneside from Ligue 1 side Rennes on a free transfer.

The former France Under-21 international is Pardew’s third summer signing, following on from Lille’s Yohan Cabaye and West Ham’s Demba Ba.

“It’s a great coup to have signed Sylvain, who has received interest from a number of other clubs,” Pardew told the club’s official site.

“He may not be well known to many of our fans but he is a real talent and a player we have been keeping an eye on for some time.”

“It’s been a good couple of days for us on the transfer front.”

Marveaux, 25, made more than 100 appearances with Rennes, scoring 16 goals.

Newcastle moved quickly to clinch the deal after a proopsed transfer to Liverpool fell through because he could not agree personal terms with the Anfield club.

Reports in France suggested the transfer did not go ahead as Marveaux could not pass a medical at Liverpool, but the midfielder has now declared that was not the source of the problem.

“I do not want to go into details, but if I have not signed for Liverpool, it was because there was a contractual disagreement between the involved parties, Thursday evening,” he told L’Equipe.

Marveaux, who said he was ‘disgusted’ to hear such reports about him, insisted he is fit to play: “Today, I can undergo a medical before you and you will see there is no problem.”