Manchester City have made a £10 million offer for Wayne Bridge and are expected to follow up their move for the Chelsea defender by lodging a bid for Roque Santa Cruz, the Blackburn Rovers striker, before the end of the week as the Barclays Premier League’s new financial superpower waste no time flexing their muscles in the transfer market.

With West Ham United demanding in excess of £20 million for Craig Bellamy and Scott Parker, after rejecting a £15 million bid from City for the pair last weekend, Mark Hughes has focused his attention on the pursuit of other leading targets as the transfer window opens for business today.

Hughes has long identified Bridge as his first-choice target to fill the club’s problematic left-back position, although if he is unable to persuade the England player to leave Stamford Bridge — or if Chelsea refuse to sell Ashley Cole’s deputy — the City manager is likely to turn his attention to Philipp Lahm, of Bayern Munich, who has won 52 caps for Germany.

City are also eager to prise Santa Cruz from Ewood Park, with Sam Allardyce, the Blackburn manager, all but conceding defeat yesterday in his efforts to keep the Paraguay striker. A bid of about £17 million could be lodged as early as today — with Nedum Onuoha, the City defender, possibly a makeweight in any deal — although Allardyce is holding out for £20 million after accepting that Santa Cruz, whom Hughes signed from Bayern for £3.8 million in July 2007, is eager to team up again with the former Blackburn manager.

City, who have had three offers for Santa Cruz rejected in the past year, have also inquired about Amr Zaki, the Egypt striker, who is on loan to Wigan Athletic from Zamalek.

“There appears to be an interest [in Santa Cruz from City], but there is no confirmed bid from them,” Allardyce said. “It would be reasonable to say we expect to hear from them. Mark Hughes brought him to this club and if he’s struggling for a striker, he’ll be interested. But it would only be at the right price for Blackburn Rovers if we decide we want to sell him. It’s in their hands to make the first approach.”

Hughes, backed by the club’s immensely rich owners, the Abu Dhabi United Group, has a budget of up to £60 million as he looks to recruit six new players. Hughes reiterated yesterday that City would not be held to ransom and, so far, the manager appears to have been true to his word. City were keen to sign Lassana Diarra from Portsmouth, but pulled out of the running because they were unwilling to go anywhere near the £18 million that Real Madrid agreed to pay for the France midfield player last week.

Similarly, Hughes believes that West Ham’s combined valuation of Bellamy and Parker is unrealistic, even if the figure is, in part, a tactic from the East London club, who are hoping to buy enough time to sell off other players, such as Luís Boa Morte, Matthew Etherington and Calum Davenport, and avert the threat of losing their star names.

Matthew Upson, the West Ham and England defender, is also a target for City, although Hughes may turn instead to Kolo Touré, of Arsenal, or Joleon Lescott, of Everton.

Bill Kenwright, the Everton chairman, insisted yesterday that David Moyes, the club’s manager, is under no pressure to sell and Joe Kinnear, the Newcastle United manager, has warned City against making a bid for Shay Given, his goalkeeper. “He won’t be leaving — he has no interest in that whatsoever,” Kinnear said.

Although Hughes’s focus will be on bolstering his squad, he also wants to offload at least half a dozen players. Tal Ben-Haim, the Israel defender signed from Chelsea for £3 million in the summer, could return to his former club, Bolton Wanderers.