Kiely close to leaving, Bowyer not close to joining Feeling very envious of Wigan Athletic's achievement tonight. Oh what I would give for a semi-final cup victory over Arsenal and a day out at Cardiff. Maybe Mervyn Day will make himself useful and stick the newspaper report onto the wall of the changing room at Sparrow's Lane tomorrow? Congratulations to Wigan though, they are having a truly memorable season.

Transfer speculation tonight that Dean Kiely will be a Pompey player within the next couple of days. The two clubs are said to have agreed a £750,000 fee, this has re-ignited stories of us seeking to sign Norwich's Robert Green, something that Curbs' has already denied.

Newcastle's managerial turmoil (like groundhog day isn't it?) has appeared to have put the spanner in the works of us signing Lee Bowyer. Supposedly Fat Freddie has put a kybosh on any movement of players until Graeme Souness' future is resolved, possibly at the weekend. Mea

Birmingham have switched their attention to Rangers in-form striker Peter Lovenkrands, although Steve Bruce is understood to ideally want to sign the Dane and Jason Euell.

Stories also link us with Fulham's 6'5" defender Zat Knight again and I heard today on the grapevine (text message actually) that Danny Murphy's enforced absence from the team is due to "personal problems," of which sort I don't know.  ¶ 00:40