Shaun Wright-Phillips is in advanced talks with Fulham, where he would be reunited with his former manager Mark Hughes, as Roberto Mancini continues to ease out the old guard at Manchester City.
Wright-Phillips has been told he is no longer wanted at Eastlands after a drawn-out and occasionally acrimonious contract dispute that has left him feeling disaffected and looking for new employers.
The player’s form has deteriorated, with Mancini limiting him to only two starts in the Premier League this season, but Hughes has not been put off by Wright-Phillips’s inability to replicate his form from his first spell at City, when he was firmly established as a crowd favourite and eventually moved to Chelsea for £21m in 2005.
Hughes was City’s manager when the club re-signed him for £9m in August 2008 but, after a promising start, Wright-Phillips’s second spell at the club has been a disappointment.
Fulham had initially wanted to arrange a permanent transfer although the deal has been complicated by the player apparently increasing his salary demands as well as wanting a four-year contract, something the London club believe excessive for a player who will turn 30 in October.
The deal was also being slightly hindered by the fact that Garry Cook, City’s chief executive, suffered a bout of pneumonia last week that was serious enough to mean a hospital visit.
A loan is more appealing to Fulham and, if everything goes according to plan, Hughes hopes a player who has won 36 caps for England will be available to make his debut when Stoke City visit Craven Cottage on Saturday.