NEWCASTLE UNITED have revived their interest in Tottenham's Stephen Carr as they try to end their search for a new right-back.

Following Andy Griffin's departure to Portsmouth, the Magpies' need has become desperate with only Aaron Hughes familiar with playing that role.

Sir Bobby Robson has made that position his priority this summer and has a list of targets he would be happy to see come in and do a job there.

But Northern Echo SPORT understands Carr, who has been tracked by Robson for well over a year now, remains a player the Newcastle boss would love to have in his team.

There were strong suggestions in January that the St James' Park outfit's advances had been turned down by the fully-committed defender.

Tottenham, though, denied that there had been contact between the two clubs and Carr remained at White Hart Lane for the remainder of the campaign.

Now, with French coach Jaques Santini lined up to take over at the north London club after Euro 2004, the futures of a number of Spurs stars are in doubt.

Newcastle are waiting in the wings should Carr become available but Robson does have other options if a deal this time around fails to materialise.

Chelsea's Mario Melchiot, Leeds' Danny Mills, Ajax's Hatem Trabelsi and Benfica's Miguel are among those to have been looked at by the former England manager.

As has Greek full-back Giourkas Seitaridis, who Robson will run the rule over again this afternoon.

Seitaridis has been on Newcastle's list of potential targets for a number of months and the 23-year-old will be playing against Portugal in the Euro 2004 opener later today.

The Panathinaikos defender is wanted by a number of clubs and should Newcastle decide to bid for the player they face stiff competition, particularly from Porto.

Porto have tabled a bid of over £2m for the player as they expect to bank £13m from the sale of Paulo Ferreira to Chelsea.

And a Panathinaikos spokesman said last night: "Negotiations are ongoing and as far as I know there is no conclusion yet."

Meanwhile, the Alan Shearer transfer mystery appeared to be solved last night when Genoa president Enrico Preziosi revealed it had stemmed from one of his 'jokes'.

Reports in Italy had claimed the Newcastle skipper was on the verge of signing a three-year deal at the Serie B side.

However, Shearer was quick to label the stories as 'completely untrue'.

And Preziosi added new light to the whole saga last night by insisting: "It's not true.

"Shearer has never been in our dreams and I didn't even know of his existence.

"Sincerely, he wasn't in our plans.

"Some people call me a joker and, as a joker, I joked."

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