Carlos Tevez will not complete his transfer to Manchester United today, and may not be registered in time for the start of the season.

However, the club remain hopeful the deal will be confirmed by the weekend.

The Argentina striker is to sign a two-year loan-type agreement but the contract has to be deemed acceptable by the Premier League.

It is understood the league's lawyers will not be able to sign it off today and there are some concerns that the delay could stretch on beyond the weekend because a similar deal involving Javier Mascherano to Liverpool took a number of weeks to be cleared.

The Tevez deal, though, is so similar to Mascherano's that United are confident it can go through before the weekend. To be available for selection for Sunday's game with Reading, Tevez would have to be registered by 5pm on Friday.

Rio Ferdinand is looking forward to working with his new colleague, having heard about him for years.

He revealed: "Pini [Zahavi, the agent] has been singing Tevez's praises for years, long before I laid eyes on him and I have spoken to Anton [Ferdinand] about him loads.

"My brother is always saying what a fantastic footballer Tevez is and he thinks he will be a great acquisition for us.

"As players, we are just like fans really. We are really excited to have new players coming in and can't wait to see what they can do.

"He has only trained with us a couple of times but already we can see what he is all about."

Meanwhile, Richard Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive, insisted he never contemplated resigning over the criticism of his handling of the Carlos Tevez affair.

Wigan chairman Dave Whelan has called for both Scudamore and League chairman Sir Dave Richards to quit, but Scudamore is adamant the board just followed the rule-book.

West Ham were fined £5.5million by an independent commission for contravening rules on third-party agreements when they signed Tevez and Argentina team-mate Javier Mascherano, and the League have come in for criticism for allowing the striker to play a crucial role in the last three matches of the season.

Asked if he had considered his position, Scudamore said: "I don't think so. All the board have done since last August is look at our rule-book and apply the rule-book.

"The independent commission made various decisions about West Ham's conduct and we have then gone on making decisions based on our rules.

"They may not have been popular decisions but that goes with the territory."

Scudamore did admit that the Tevez saga appeared "like a road crash".

He added: "What made this an unbelievable story was an unbelievable series of events.

"West Ham were all but relegated at Christmas and then Tevez scored a few goals right at the end of the season and they were able to escape.

"It's unscripted drama and one of the things that makes football so interesting but it other ways it looks like a road crash in how some of the events appear."

Scudamore added that the whole affair was caused by West Ham's previous owners acting in bad faith and concealing the agreements from the Premier League.

"The Premier League only works if you have good faith between the members," he said.