SOCCER: Mark Viduka's representatives met with the Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren last week, when the Leeds striker began to look at his options for next season. Elland Road fans, who watched as the Australian was sent off at Bolton on Sunday and the club sank to relegation, will not be enamoured at the timing of the meeting.

Viduka, however, has not pledged himself to Boro, though McClaren's interest in the striker, first established in January, has been upped. He is no longer as keen on Liverpool's Emile Heskey who, in turn, is believed to have decided to join Birmingham City.

McClaren spoke last week of his admiration for Viduka and his Leeds team-mate Alan Smith, but is believed to think Viduka the more realistic target. The meeting with his agents was not known then and will raise further questions about Viduka's reckless attitude at Bolton.

Even before he knew of Leeds's plight it appears Viduka, 28, had made the decision to depart this summer. Middlesbrough can offer domestic stability - Viduka can continue to live in north Yorkshire - and European football next season.

Boro are also one of the few clubs who can take on Viduka's wages of £65,000 per week, £20,000 of which are based on image rights. The transfer fee would be in the region of £5 million, a sum that will dismay Leeds's board.

McClaren had tried to sign Heskey in January and then turned to Viduka when the former chose not to leave Anfield. But the 26-year-old England striker has become aware that his future lies elsewhere, with Djibril Cisse arriving from Auxerre for £14 million in July.

Birmingham, as desperate for a strong target man as Middlesbrough, offer Heskey the opportunity to re-establish himself at a prosperous club back in his native Midlands.

Liverpool paid Leicester £11 million for Heskey four years ago but he has not been a great success. Yet the prospect of Heskey alongside Mikael Forssell is one that appeals to Birmingham's manager Steve Bruce, who may have to pay Liverpool a fee of £4 million.

Leeds, meanwhile, will explore the possibility of tempting back Gordon Strachan if a consortium of businessmen, fronted by the haulage magnate Steve Parkin, is successful in its bid to seize control at Elland Road.

Parkin is known to be Leeds through and through, and apparently has the finances in place to not only buy out Krasner, but to also help rebuild a club still crippled by considerable debts.

One of those is a £15 million loan owed to former Watford chairman and current Aston Villa shareholder Jack Petchey, money borrowed by Krasner and his colleagues - under a company known as Adulant Force - to conclude their own £22 million takeover on March 19th.

The club's relegation has not deterred Parkin from wanting to replace the present regime and Strachan has been identified as the manager to put an end to the team's spiralling fortunes.

Parkin and his associates are banking on the former Leeds captain, who led the club to the championship in 1992, being attracted by the proposition of a rescue act, although there are no guarantees that Parkin's negotiations with the Leeds board will result in a takeover, because his consortium has already failed with one bid. The haulage magnate last week had a £23 million bid for Leeds rejected, but is undeterred in his quest to take control.

A new manager would also take over a weakened squad. The directors meet tonight to sanction the transfers of players such as Viduka, Alan Smith, Paul Robinson, James Milner and Danny Mills, on loan at Middlesbrough. Smith is believed to be a target for Liverpool but after Sunday's defeat claimed that wherever he went he would like to return to Elland Road.

"Wherever I go, if I have to go at the end of this season, hopefully I will still be able to come back to this club and it won't be the last time I am seen in a Leeds shirt." said Smith.

Eddie Gray, who has been in temporary charge for six months this week and wants the job full-time, will also attend the meeting. But it would make little sense for the board to grant his wish before seeing which other managers become available this summer.

Strachan left Southampton in February saying he wanted to take a year out of football, although it was widely deduced that he might be back in work for the start of next season. The 47-year-old went travelling but is now back home and open to offers.