Dave Kidd had it exactly right in yesterday’s People:

Roy Hodgson operates on a tight budget while performing miracles at Fulham, usually having to fund any signings by selling players first.

So he must fill up with joy every time his mobile phone rings and the name ‘Phil Brown’ appears.

First the Hull boss offers £5million for the injury-prone Jimmy Bullard, then he bids another £5m for the non-scoring centre-forward Bobby Zamora.

He’s what your friends and family tariff was made for.

But don’t be chuckling too loudly just yet. Alan Nixon, who shouldn’t trust as far you could throw him, says Zamora wants a Bullard-esque wage packet if he’s to join Hull.

Brown has tried and failed in his bids to sign Michael Owen and Marc-Antoine Fortune, while his move for Bobby Zamora has hit snags over the Fulham striker’s personal terms. Zamora knows what former team-mate Jimmy Bullard picked up for going to Hull and is looking for comparable cash.

If Zamora wants £45-50,000 a week, then I’m pretty sure football’s gone mad.

Suddenly, the tan man’s not sounding so confident of signing Bobby.

We have tabled a bid and it has been accepted. Obviously people will question that Bobby is not prolific. But I think he is a very, very good holding player.

I spoke to him at the weekend. Hopefully I will get together with him on Monday or Tuesday and show him around the place and hopefully he likes what he sees.