Lescott deal puts Dunne's future in doubt

SPECULATION WAS mounting about Richard Dunne’s future at Manchester City last night as the club were putting the finishing touches to Joleon Lescott’s transfer from Everton after he passed his medical. City are expected to formally unveil the 26-year-old England international as Britain’s second most expensive defender prior to Thursday’s League Cup game at Crystal Palace.

Such is the pace of change at Eastlands these days that, after a fee of some €25.2 million plus around €2.3 million in potential add-ons was agreed with Everton, and Lescott was still undergoing his medical before moving on to the negotiation of what will no doubt be rather lavish personal terms, it emerged that the club had signed another defender, former Arsenal left back Sylvinho. He was a free agent having been released by Barcelona at the end of last season.

The Brazilian (35), who won two Champions Leagues and three Spanish League titles during the last few seasons, arrives on a one-year deal as cover for Wayne Bridge.

It seems that the only way that Dunne has a future at the club is if he settles for a similar stand-by status in central defence where Lescott is now set to partner Kolo Toure in Mark Hughes’ first-choice team.

Dunne was certainly well aware a little over a week ago of Lescott’s impending arrival when he expressed his determination to stick around and battle it out.

“Nothing has been said to me about leaving the club,” he said. “I’ve got three years left on my contract and I am very happy. This is an exciting time at City.

“There is a real competition for places and I’m prepared to fight for mine. I’ve heard that Aston Villa, Spurs, Sunderland, Arsenal and Stoke are all interested in me and that is very flattering, but I’ll continue to do my best for the club until I’m told otherwise.”

The list of potential suitors at this stage might more accurately read: Villa, Sunderland and Everton, with the latter having to rather hastily compile a list of players they might be able to bring in ahead of next Tuesday afternoon’s transfer deadline with the money from the Lescott deal.

Everton boss David Moyes has continued to grumble about the way City lured the centre back and the amount of time it took the club to match what he claims is the player’s true worth but most neutral observers and (if the website forums were in any way representative yesterday) the club’s own fans too, reckon the fee to be a pretty good bit of business for the Goodison Park outfit.

The timing, though, is an issue. While Everton were yesterday gearing up to spend some of their windfall on Russian international Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and continued to be linked with Valencia’s Ever Banega, both midfielders, and with one of the club’s only two recognised centre backs, Phil Jagielka, out injured for some time to come, a replacement for Lescott will be a priority.

Bolton’s Gary Cahill and David Wheater of Middlesbrough have both been mentioned as possibilities but bringing Dunne back to the club he left for €3.5 million in 2000 might provide a straightforward solution, even if it will seem a little less likely in the event that it is part of the concluded Lescott transfer.

Sunderland boss Steve Bruce made no secret of his desire to recruit Dunne earlier in the summer and there had been some confidence up on Wearside that the defender would actually sign in time to be part of the club’s pre-season activities.

Since then, word of Martin O’Neill’s interest has spread and the Irishman’s reputation as well as the belief that his side are capable of challenging for a place in the top four might make an offer tempting for the player.

The scale of the Lescott deal, meanwhile, may allow Wolves manager Mick McCarthy to further strengthen his squad with the club due between 10 and 15 per cent of the profit in a sell-on agreement with Everton, reckoned to be around €2.2 million. Everton bought Lescott from Wolves in 2006.

The club’s biggest signing to date, Kevin Doyle, looks set to make his Molineux debut this evening when Wolves take on Swindon in the League Cup, and the Irish striker insists he is encouraged by his team’s encounter with the league’s most prolific spenders over the weekend.

“I think everyone was turning up to see a show on Saturday,” he says, “and wasn’t too worried about us. Nobody apart from us probably thought we could get something out of the game, but we’ve ended up disappointed that we didn’t cause a little upset.

“But I think you have to believe you can win any game, as Burnley proved last week. You don’t just forget about the big teams. We put in a decent performance and managed to put them under some pressure, particularly in the second half. We created some good chances in the second half and hit the crossbar and on another day could have got a draw.

“But we don’t want to be happy going away from a place like this with a 1-0 defeat. We wanted to get something out of the game.”