MANCHESTER, England (AFP) - Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has defended the club's move for Carlos Tevez after revealing that the Argentina star is close to joining the Premiership champions.

Ferguson said the club hoped to confirm the arrival of the West Ham forward, who is currently representing his country in the Copa America, in the next few days.

"We are in negotiations which have been well documented," said Ferguson, speaking at a press conference in Manchester on Monday to unveil new signings Owen Hargreaves and Nani.

"(Club Solicitor) Maurice Watkins has been working on it for a month, maybe more, to make sure the deal is perfectly clear and there are no side issues.

"To be honest I thought it would have all been sorted by the weekend just gone. It must be the Premier League that is holding it up.

"From what David (Gill) and Maurice said everything was ready to go. Unless something's being held back from us, I don't know of anything that's holding it up.

"The essential parts of the deal are all agreed, hopefully it will be finalised soon."

West Ham were fined 5.5 million pounds in April after being found guilty of acting improperly and withholding vital documentation over the ownership of Tevez and compatriot Javier Mascherano, who is now at Liverpool.

But Ferguson said he was confident United had done everything by the book regarding Tevez, who will be his fifth signing since the club won the title in May.

Hargreaves has quickly set his sights on winning silverware at Old Trafford after his 17 million pound move from Bayern Munich while Portuguese duo Nani and Anderson are also expected to feature next season after arriving from Sporting Lisbon and Porto respectively.

Ferguson, who has also turned Tomasz Kuszczak's loan move from West Brom into a permanent deal, claims he now has one of the strongest squads in Europe.

But he insists none of his players can afford to relax and intends to keep rotating his squad as he targets domestic and European glory.

"Last season was the third Champions League semi-final we have failed in," added Ferguson.

"We don't like that. We think we should be doing better and signing these players does give us a bigger chance. It brings us quality, it brings us experience of Europe. It brings us good intensity of play so I'm very hopeful we can do better.

"The thing about doing the business with two young players like Nani and Anderson is great timing for us. They will now have time to adapt to the way of our club.

"They won't play every game next season, but they will play a lot of games and it gives us a future."