Coventry City have announced that Town and Aston Villa have both made formal bids for their midfielder Moustapha Hadji. Earlier in the week George Burley denied that a bid had been put in, but intimated that he was interested in the player. This it seems is now confirmed.
Coventry chairman Bryan Richardson said on the official Coventry website: "Hadji is not committed by us to go anywhere. We have received offers from Aston Villa and Ipswich, but we will have to wait and see how that transpires. We have not finalised any deal with either club. Both are substantial and one or other might involve a player coming to us."
Coventry have refused to confirm whether the Town offer includes any Town players going in the opposite direction. Reports at the weekend claimed that James Scowcroft was part of the deal.
However, Town are likely to fail in this move as the player seems to have his heart set on joining his best friend Hassan Kachloul at Villa. John Gregory has offered Julian Joachim as part of the deal for Hadji, presumably as a ready-made replacement for Craig Bellamy.
Richard Wright has undergone the first part of his Highbury medical. The Town keeper has returned from his holiday and the deal looks likely to go through sooner rather than later.
George Burley has denied weekend links with Hearts keeper Antti Niemi, the Town boss said: "It's news to me."