Three-way battle for Villa’s Cahill

Birmingham are still in the hunt for Aston Villa defender Gary Cahill, even though Bolton have reportedly agreed a £5million fee for the player.

According to reports, boss Alex McLeish wants to convince Cahill to reject Bolton’s approaches in favour of a move to St Andrews, where he would be reunited with former team-mate Liam Ridgewell. Sunderland have also been linked with the player.

However, as things stand Bolton remain the favourites to secure the 22-year-old, who spent part of this season on-loan with Sheffield United – but the chance to avoid a cross-country move may swing things in favour of Birmingham.

The Evening Standard quoted McLeish as saying: “We will just have to wait and see what happens over the next 48 hours. We are in touch with his agent and Martin O’Neill.”

At least one team in Birmingham is happy to spend money during the current transfer window, while it is starting to look as though O’Neill will have to make do with even less players than he went into January with…!