Andreas Isaksson, the Manchester City goalkeeper, is expected to seek a move abroad when the transfer window opens next month after Joe Hart was installed as Sven-Göran Eriksson’s preferred choice yesterday. Isaksson, Hart and Kasper Schmeichel have each been given a chance to stake a claim for the goalkeeper’s jersey by the City manager during the first half of the season, but Hart has impressed the most.

The decision is likely to force Isaksson, whose attempts to secure the No 1 spot have been undermined by injury since he signed from Rennes for £2 million in August last year, to consider his options, with Galatasaray, of Turkey, one club to have expressed interest in the Swede.

Eriksson is thought to have some misgivings about Isaksson, particularly over his kicking, while Schmeichel, the Denmark Under21 goalkeeper who has been on loan at Cardiff City, is thought to be too rough around the edges. Hart was signed by Stuart Pearce, Eriksson’s predecessor, from Shrewsbury Town for an initial £600,000 last year.

Richard Dunne has criticised the performance of Steve Bennett during City’s 2-0 Carling Cup quarter-final defeat by Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday, accusing the referee of being inconsistent and rounding on him for not awarding a penalty in his favour after an apparent foul by Pascal Chim-bonda. “We have seen all the incidents afterwards on the laptop and they all seem wrong,” Dunne said. “There are bookings when there should not have been and red cards when they should have been bookings. It was one of those nights. What can we do?”

City are to give a trial to Yasser Al Qahtani, the Saudi Arabia captain. The 25-year-old striker, who plays for Al-Hilal, was the top scorer in this year’s Asian Cup.