Manchester City and Newcastle United are back in the hunt for Eidur Gudjohnsen after the Barcelona forward turned down a transfer to West Ham United. Gudjohnsen, 28, is likely to be surplus to requirements in Catalonia this season following the arrival of Thierry Henry and Barcelona agreed a fee of £8 million for the Iceland international.

Sven-Goran Eriksson, the Manchester City manager, will attempt to push through a deal for the Livorno goalkeeper Marco Almelia today. Eriksson is close to completing a £5m move for the Italian after failing in attempts to sign Craig Gordon, who chose Sunderland, and Scott Carson, who has joined Aston Villa on loan.

Fulham have signed defender Adrian Leijer from Melbourne Victory for an undisclosed fee. Leijer, 21, has signed a three-year contract at Craven Cottage.

The Arsenal defender Johan Djourou has completed a loan move to Birmingham City that will keep him at St Andrews until January.

The Tottenham Hotspur manager, Martin Jol, is set to move for Matt Taylor, the the Portsmouth midfielder, after failing in bids for Middlesbrough’s Stewart Downing and the Bulgarian Martin Petrov, who signed for Manchester City this summer. However, Portsmouth are likely to demand £8m for Taylor, who Jol came close to signing in January 2006.

Harry Redknapp, the Portsmouth manager, is prepared to allow Lomana LuaLua, 26, to leave the club after revealing the DR Congo forward is unhappy at Fratton Park. Redknapp said: “I think Lua feels he would like a change. Maybe he would like to go and play abroad somewhere. At the moment though, that could or could not happen, we will have to wait and see."

Gareth Southgate, the Middlesbrough manager, is hoping to pair Mido, the Tottenham forward, and Yakubu in his attack for the new season. Southgate is continuing to fend off interest from Everton in Yakubu and is optimistic about his chances of beating Sunderland and Birmingham to the signing of Mido. Southgate said: “Mido is someone we have an interest in. Our view is that we’d like to have him and Yak if we can do it.”

Moyes is, however, getting ever closer to completing the transfer of Manuel Fernandes after agreeing a fee of £6m for Benfica’s 50 per cent share in the Portuguese midfield player. Fernandes had a successful spell on loan at Goodison Park last season and Moyes has made the player his main target after failing in a move for Luis Gonzalez. Everton will now have to agree a deal with Global Sports agency, who own the other half of the player.

Preston North End completed a deal for West Bromwich Albion’s Darren Carter for an initial £750,000 in a deal that could eventually rise to £1.25m late last night and the midfield player could be in the squad to face Norwich City tomorrow.