NEW £7.5m striker Aiyegbeni Yakubu will make his bow in a Middlesbrough shirt tonight - as manager Steve McClaren prepares to lose out on Stephen Appiah.

Appiah has been targeted by Boro boss Steve McClaren since the turn of the year but is on the verge of moving to Fenerbahce.

The Turks agreed a fee of around £5.5m for the Juventus midfielder yesterday and he is due to have contract talks and a medical today.

Boro's reluctance to meet the Italian club's valuation of the player - although they did originally want £8m - looks to have cost them one of their top targets this summer.

McClaren has been trying to strike a season-long loan deal but Juventus have been holding out for a straight cash offer, which has arrived from Fenerbahce.

The 24-year-old spoke only on Monday of his determination to move to the Premiership but an unwillingness to meet the asking price looks to have cost him his dream.

Everton, Manchester City and Tottenham were also interested, while Arsenal turned down the chance to sign him as part of the deal that led to Patrick Vieira moving to Serie A.

Now McClaren, who has two sides going to Hearts and Hartlepool for friendlies tonight, is having to look elsewhere having already been snubbed by Bayern Munich's Owen Hargreaves.

The lack of movement on the transfer front in recent weeks means only Yakubu will be making his first appearance for the Teessiders tonight.

The Nigerian is part of a strong squad that will travel to Edinburgh to face Hearts and he is likely to be paired with Mark Viduka.

Viduka, whose first season at Boro was plagued by injury, will get the chance to stake a claim to become Yakubu's new strike partner after proving his fitness in training.

Gaizka Mendieta will also make the trip to Tynecastle where he should make his comeback from the knee ligament injury sustained against Portsmouth in October.

The game is free admission for the Hearts supporters but Boro fans will have to pay £10 and £5. A weaker side, including Doriva and Michael Reiziger, will be at neighbours Hartlepool, where admission is £15 and £7.

Boro should know later today whether summer signing Emanuel Pogatetz's appeal to have a six-month ban overturned has been successful.

The Football Union of Russia imposed an unprecedented 24-week suspension on the Austrian international for breaking a player's leg while on loan at Spartak Moscow.

Pogatetz was sent off in the tenth minute of his final match against Shinnik Yaroslavl after a tackle on Yaroslav Kharitonsky which left the midfielder with a double leg fracture.

Just days later he penned a five-year deal at Boro after the club paid Bayer Leverkusen £1.8m for his services - only to learn they would be without him for the first four months of the Premiership campaign.

Pogatetz has flown to Russia today to hear the verdict and hopes his apology to Kharitonsky earlier this month will help his case. If the suspension is upheld, it will not expire until December 15 and his first game will be against Tottenham two days later.

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