Birmingham City's manager Steve Bruce has made a bid for the Manchester United midfielder Nicky Butt after being promised the funds to complete the next stage of his club's transformation and qualify for the UEFA Cup.
Bruce has been allocated a budget in the region of £12 million to spend on Butt, the Chelsea striker Mikael Forssell and the Blackburn Rovers defender Martin Taylor.
He has offered £5.5 million for the 29-year-old Butt, a former team-mate of his at Old Trafford who has reluctantly been granted a transfer request by United, and £1.5 million for the 24-year-old Taylor. There is also money available for Bruce to convert the £5 million-rated Forssell's on-loan status at St Andrews into a long-term contract.
"If Chelsea give us the green light about Mikael being for sale then we will act," he said. "If they said I could sign him before the transfer window closes then I don't think that would affect my attempts to sign the other two players."
Whereas Bruce has made no secret of his desire to sign Forssell, he is more guarded about his other two targets. "We have got two bids on the table for two Premiership players and that's as far as I want to talk about it," he added.
Blackburn have already said they want Blues to increase their offer for Taylor to £2 million but United are understood to be happy with the bid for Butt, which involves a down payment of £3 million and the balance paid in instalments. There are potential stumbling blocks, though: Birmingham's ability to pay Butt's £40,000-a-week wages and his willingness to join a club who are not in Europe.
Andy Cole has told Blackburn's manager Graeme Souness that he is ready to see out the final 18 months of his contract and will not be off-loaded this summer. Cash-strapped Rovers are desperate to cut costs but the striker insists that he remains fully committed to the club. He said: "I signed a three-and-a-half-year contract two years ago and was happy to join the club and that remains the same today."
The Tottenham midfielder Milenko Acimovic has been undergoing a medical at Lille with a view to joining the French club on loan until the end of the season.
Thierry Henry will not start Arsenal's FA Cup tie at home to Middlesbrough tomorrow because Arsene Wenger has decided to extend the striker's rest. Henry missed Tuesday's League Cup semi-final against Boro. Wenger expects Dennis Bergkamp to be available at the weekend after missing five games with a calf injury and the Dutchman could be partnered in attack by Freddie Ljungberg because Sylvain Wiltord and Jeremie Aliadiere are injured and Nwankwo Kanu has gone to the African Nations Cup.
Wiltord's ankle injury is worse than initially feared and could yet be out for weeks. Wiltord, whose contract expires next summer, has not played for Arsenal for more than a month.
The Cameroon coach Winfried Schafer has said that Lauren, the Arsenal full-back, has agreed to come out of international retirement to play in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup. That would be a blow to Wenger, who thought the former Mallorca player would not be involved in the 10 long-distance matches which are spread between June 2004 and October 2005.
