Nedum Onuoha boost for Wolves and West Brom
Wolves and West Brom were today handed a boost in their pursuit of Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha after Roberto Mancini said he can leave next month.
Wolves and West Brom were today handed a boost in their pursuit of Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha after Roberto Mancini said he can leave next month.
The Nigeria-born centre-back, aged 25, is on the list for both Black Country rivals as they bid to strengthen their squads when the January transfer window opens.
And City boss Mancini is happy to allow Onuoha the chance of regular football elsewhere permanently rather than allow him out on loan, along with the similarly out-of-favour Wayne Bridge.
"Onuoha and Bridge are good players and I hope we can find a good solution for them in January," said Mancini.
"I hope for them that they can find good clubs who will pay their value and they can continue to play football.
"If we take a player from another club (on loan) we pay a lot of money, yet other clubs want to take players from us on loan. It is not correct."
Neither Wolves nor the Baggies will pay the estimated £4m City want for the former England Under-21 international, with both understood to be willing to do business at around £3m.
And they could face interest from Premier League basement boys Bolton to fill the void when former Villa centre-back Gary Cahill leaves.
Onuoha and Wigan midfielder Mohamed Diame are McCarthy's leading targets.
He is also weighing up a move for one of Arsenal's young midfield men Emmanuel Frimpong or Francis Coquelin while he remains keen on Sunderland's Craig Gardner.