Middlesbrough are preparing to make an offer to Leeds United for Seth Johnson. Boro are to start the bidding at £3.5 million, but Leeds will want more for a player for whom David O'Leary paid Derby County £7 million 14 months ago. Michael Walker reports.

Boro manager Steve McClaren knows Johnson, (23), from their time together at Pride Park and from the England set-up. The player has one cap.

Johnson has suffered from knee injuries in his short time at Elland Road and has not yet started under Terry Venables.

He is regarded as one of the players who is dispensable as Leeds try to trim their wage bill, but Boro may not be willing to pay between £5 million and £6 million.

Olivier Dacourt's fragile relationship with Venables is likely to result in the French midfielder leaving Elland Road for Roma this weekend.Dacourt's agent Bruno Satin was in Italy last night to arrange personal terms for a loan deal until the end of the season, with a view to a £7 million permanent move.

Dacourt has become a peripheral figure at Leeds since Venables took over from O'Leary and his advisers have been trying to find him a new club for several months.

He has not featured for Leeds since being fined two weeks' wages for describing their league position as a "disgrace" in an interview with France Football magazine last month.

Birmingham City manager Steve Bruce has written off his club's chances of signing Leeds' unsettled midfielder Lee Bowyer for the rest of the season.

Bowyer, who turned 26 yesterday, is out of contract at Elland Road in June and has so far declined to accept a new deal worth £32,000 a week.

He is free to talk to other clubs and Birmingham were given permission to contact him recently.

"There's a lot of work to be done and we'll see what happens. But if I'm brutally honest, I don't think it will happen," said Bruce.

Bowyer is understood to have rejected an offer after talks between the club and his agent David Geiss.

Newcastle United's search for a centre half continues. Rebuffed by Leeds in their pursuit of Jonathan Woodgate, their manager Bobby Robson has had to look towards other options, one of whom is Marseille's Daniel van Buyten.

The 24-year-old defender, who played in Belgium's four World Cup matches including the second-round defeat by Brazil, would cost less than Woodgate, but not much less.

Van Buyten joined Marseille from Standard Liege 18 months ago for a fee which has been the subject of much debate in Belgium.

Officially Marseille paid £9 million, but it's widely doubted whether Liege received that sum.

Newcastle could afford to match £9 million and have inquired twice about Van Buyten's availability, even if Robson refused to confirm this yesterday. As yet, there has been no Newcastle bid, but the noises they have heard should be encouraging.

Van Buyten, 6ft 4in and the son of a professional wrestler, is the sort of aggressive defender Robson wants. His rise has been rapid. Three years ago he was playing for Charleroi before leaving for Standard for £150,000.

He had played only five times for Belgium before the World Cup finals, but in one of those games he scored the equaliser in Glasgow which helped Belgium edge ahead of Scotland in the campaign to qualify for Korea and Japan.

Arsenal have invited Stefanos Kotsolis, Panathinaikos' number two goalkeeper, for a trial, according to the Greek club.

Arsene Wenger has already tested the Bulgarian Zdravko Zdravkov and is understood to want to cast an eye over Kotsolis, a former under-21 international.

Celtic and Rangers have agreed a three-year joint sponsorship deal with Carling from next season worth up to £12 million.

Ipswich have warned that they may have to sell players this month after dismissing almost 20 back-room staff in a cost-cutting measure.

Guardian Service