The Daily Mail reckons that Fulham are one of three Premier League sides locked in a battle for Newcastle defender Steven Taylor.

The Mail say that, despite Chris Hughton’s denials yesterday, Taylor’s lone lap of honour after Newcastle’s 3-0 defeat of Reading on Saturday was a farewell to the St. James’ Park faithful. The report states that Aston Villa and Everton are also interested in the former England under-21 captain but none of three clubs have yet to move beyond initial enquiries to matching Newcastle’s asking price. The £6m quoted seems a lot more reasonable that some of the weeekend speculation that valued Taylor at around £10m.

On the subject of transfer rumours concerning highly-rated central defenders, it is pleasing that the media have dropped their insistence that any defensive target we are interested in is a direct replacement for Brede Hangeland.