At last!, it seems West Ham will complete the £6m signing of Newcastle midfielder Kieron Dyer today (various). Apparently the England midfielder will get a mammoth £12m after securing his ‘dream’ move, which will net him £80,000 a week over the next three years. Dyer, 28, has been keen to seal a return south to be nearer his two children (The Sun) and, perhaps most importantly, he gets to meet up with old friends like Lee Bowyer!

No doubt due to the astronomical sums involved in the Dyer-gate deal, The Times reports that West Ham have made Matthew Etherington, Hayden Mullins and Carlton Cole available for transfer. Of the three, I think that Cole is worth most attention. Hitherto used primarily as sub by West Ham, the 23- year-old showed great promise when he first hit the scene so I expect Premiership clubs will be keen to sign him up before the end of the month.

Sunderland have signed Tottenham striker Mido for £6m (Daily Mirror). Not wishing to be unkind to the Egyptian, I think this is an accident waiting to happen. If Mido gets into double figures in the Premiership goalscoring charts, then I will set fire to my eyes. Spurs fans must be giggling at the thought of making a profit on the former Roma hot-shot.

'If Mido gets into double figures in the Premiership goalscoring charts, then I will set fire to my eyes. Spurs fans must be giggling at the thought of making a profit on the former Roma hot-shot'


Barcelona defender Edmilson remains on the radar for Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce (tribalfootball.com). Not sure how reliable the source is, but should the Brazilian make it to Tyneside, then it would be quite a coup. He is a class act who has been at the pinnacle of European football for a number of years, winning five successive league titles with Lyon and Barca. At centre-back he would add a great deal and help the Toon Army’s notorious defensive problems, which will have eased following the selling of ‘quality’ defender Titus Bramble.

Fulham manager Lawrie Sanchez will offer £1m for Liverpool defender Sami Hyypia (Daily Express). The Finn's best years may be behind him, but he has been a great servant at Anfield, and could do a great job elsewhere for a couple of years at least. Fulham will rarely get better value for money should he really only set Mohammed Al-Fayed back one of his millions.

Jose Mourinho has some Spanish giants to deal with at present. His former employers Barcelonaare keen on luring Chelsea midfielder Claude Makelele to the Nou Camp (Daily Mirror) and La Liga title holders Real Madrid are about to beat the Blues to sign Feyenoord winger Royston Drenthe (The Guardian). The ‘Special One’ has yet to really dig deep into Roman’s pocket this summer, though it does seem likely that he will shell out £20m+ for Sevilla full-back Daniel Alves. However, Jose will not really want to lose midfield master Makelele, who may want to try out a new challenge elsewhere.

Sven-Goran Eriksson has joined the race to sign Wigan defender Leighton Baines by offering Manchester City forward Darius Vassell in a player-plus-cash package worth £6m (Daily Telegraph). Now I am no expert but offering the former Villa striker into the bargain is hardly a head-turner of an offer. How about just outbidding everyone else with some of the Thai chairman’s money?

Blackburn will offer Morten Gamst Pedersen and David Bentley new contracts to keep them at Ewood Park, but are still facing a battle to persuade Benni McCarthy to stay (Daily Mail). If Mark Hughes can keep all  three, then it would greatly increase Rovers' chances of continuing to climb the table. McCarthy seems destined to leave but Pedersen is in many ways far more important to the Blackburn cause and has been a consistent performer and has attracted interest from the likes of Liverpool and Spurs. 

I am sure Blackburn fans will be keeping their fingers crossed and hoping manager Hughes can cement the kind of contracts that keep his top talent from fleeing.