Former Aston Villa midfielder Lee Hendrie is training with Reading, with a view to earning a permanent move to the Madejski Stadium.

Hendrie, 33, is a free agent following the end of his deal at Derby, but he was in talks with SPL side Aberdeen. Royals manager Brian McDermott told BBC Berkshire: "Hendrie is training with the players this week and next week.

"He is keen to come and will be a good signing for us so we are hoping to give him an opportunity to play for us."

Hendrie started his career at Villa and scored 27 goals in 251 Premier League appearances.

He has also spent time on loan at Stoke, Leicester City, Blackpool and Brighton, as well as longer spells at Sheffield United and Derby.

McDermott feels Hendrie can fill the goal-scoring void left by Gylfi Sigurdsson who has joined Hoffenheim.

"Hendrie's best position is just off the striker. He's scored a lot of goals in his younger days for Aston Villa there," he said.

"He's a clever player with real ability - he is very fit and wants to be constantly involved in the game and will improve us as a team."

McDermott added that Hendrie has received a glowing reference from other Reading players.

"Brian Howard knows him really well, Andy Griffin knows him well and Ian Harte knows him well. They have all spoken really highly of him and hold him in very high regard.

"So I believe it'll be good to have him with us but we'll see him in training and go from there."

Source: BBC Football

Khizanishvili leaves Blackburn Rovers for Reading
3:08pm Tuesday 31st August 2010

Blackburn Rovers defender Zurab Khizanishvili has today rejoined Reading on a season-long loan.

Rovers had been keen to offload the Georgian and he will now return to the Madejski Stadium, where he had a loan spell last season.

The move effectively marks the end of his time at Ewood Park, with Khizanishvili's Rovers contract due to expire next summer.

Source: LET

Leicester has completed the signing of Japan international midfielder Yuki Abe from Urawa Red Diamonds.



The 28-year-old agreed terms with the npower Championship club last week but his move from Japan could not be finalised until he was granted a work permit.

That has now happened and Abe will link up with his new team-mates after the international break.

Abe, who played for Japan at the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa, has been capped 49 times by his country.

He helped Urawa win the Asian Champions League in 2007 and participated in the Club World Cup the same year.

Revealed: £5m cost of Cardiff loan star state...

Cardiff City are all fur coat and no knickers. They look expensive, they look the part, but it is all front. Last week I joined the voices questioning why Manchester City's lavish funding of the Craig Bellamy deal is allowed.

Since then, I've gleaned precise figures on Cardiff 's hugely subsidised wage bill and the telephone numbers should alarm every Championship manager, chairman and supporter.

Cardiff's star man, Craig Bellamy, receives £85,000 a week. Yet Cardiff pay just £21,000 of this, with £64,000 being transferred to the Welsh club from City. Another of Cardiff's loan players, Seyi Olofinjana, is paid £27,000 per week, but only £11,000 of that is from the Welsh club's coffers.

The £16,000 shortfall in the Nigerian international's wage comes from Hull City. Jason Koumas receives £29,000 per week. Cardiff pay just £10,000, the remaining £19,000 is wired from Dave Whelan's Wigan Athletic. And Cardiff have just added Wolves striker Andy Keogh to their array of loan sharks. The player earns £22,000 a week and yet Cardiff pay £10,000 of this. Wolverhampton Wanderers cough up the other £12,000.

This means that Cardiff's bid for promotion to the Premier League is being subsidised by other clubs to the tune of somewhere in the region of £5 million. This is more than the entire wage bill for a club like Scunthorpe, who are supposedly competing in the same division.

No wonder Doncaster Rovers chairman John Ryan says he feels 'let down' and complains that 'the integrity of the competition is undermined'. Cardiff are doing what they are allowed to do; they are ruthlessly exploiting the loan system.

But the Football League cannot sit idly by and pretend this is in any way fair. If the Welsh club make it to the Premier League, it will be a sleight of hand comparable to West Ham's infamous escape from relegation with a goal from Carlos Tevez, a player they infamously didn't own.

At Cardiff, half the team is owned by other clubs. If they go up, there will be an almighty street parade in the Welsh city. I just wonder whether they will take a detour via Manchester, Hull, Wigan and Wolverhampton too?

Norwich City boss Paul Lambert has moved to bring in West Brom defender Leon Barnett on loan until 4 January.

The 25-year-old, who made 20 appearances during a spell at Coventry City last season, will act as cover for the injured Michael Nelson. Lambert told the club's website: "He's a quality player who has played Premier League football as well as having solid experience at Championship level.

"So I'm delighted we've been able to bring him in."

The Canaries have found themselves short of central-defensive options after Nelson, 30, damaged ankle ligaments against Swansea at the weekend.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/shared/img/o. gif Lambert is also without American defender Zak Whitbread, who is yet to see any action this season after picking up a calf injury during the summer.

"With Michael being out for a few weeks now we felt it was the right thing to bring someone in to strengthen in that area and Leon was someone we tried to bring in last year," the Norwich manager added.

"He is here until January so he will provide competition for places when Michael and Zak are fit again, which I think you've got to have."

The Baggies do not have an option to recall the centre-half, who played the full 90 minutes in their 2-0 League Cup win at Leyton Orient on Tuesday.

Barnett has made 51 appearances for West Brom since making a £2.5m switch to the Hawthorns from Luton Town in 2007.

Source: BBC Football

Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Mick McCarthy has revealed striker Andy Keogh is to join Cardiff City.

McCarthy left the Republic of Ireland international out of his side's 2-1 Carling Cup win over Southend on Tuesday so the player is not cup-tied. "It's a racing certainty that Andy will be going to Cardiff," said McCarthy.

Keogh, 24, will join Bluebirds signings Craig Bellamy, Seyi Olofinjana, Danny Drinkwater, Jason Koumas, Lee Naylor and Tom Heaton in south Wales.

Keogh has scored 49 goals in 180 competitive appearances for Leeds, Scunthorpe, Bury and Premier League Wolves since 2004 and is now set to join the Bluebirds bid to win promotion from the Championship.

McCarthy told Wolves' website: "He didn't want to be cup tied and Cardiff didn't want him to be cup tied and it was a chance for us to give Ashley Hemmings a game [against Southend].

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/shared/img/o. gif "Andy has been fabulous here both for me and this football club. It's a good move for him to go to Cardiff and good luck to him.

"He wants to play football and doesn't want to be fourth in line here which I can fully understand.

"It was my decision to let him go but he goes with our best wishes and warmest regards."

Keogh has scored 49 goals in 180 competitive appearances for Leeds, Scunthorpe, Bury and Wolves.

Source: BBC Football

Former West Ham central defender Calum Davenport has linked up with Leeds United for training.

Davenport, 27, left the Hammers in March after his contract was cancelled by mutual consent.

Leeds manager Simon Grayson told the club's website: "He looked fit and strong. We'll see how he goes.

"There is no timescale. It might be a week or a month. We'll see how he is when he's ready to play. We'll take things from there."

Amount paid to agents by league clubs rises by £3.9m
Football League chairman admits increase is 'worrying'

Football League clubs paid out £12.7m in agents' fees last season – a rise of £3.9m from the previous year. The league has been publishing the figures since September 2003 as part of its bid for transparency. The latest report, released this morning, shows that out of 2,392 transactions between 1 July 2009 and 30 June 2010, an agent was paid 396 times.

Fourteen of the 72 clubs did not pay anything to agents while a further 23 clubs paid less than £10,000. The bulk of the £12,739,867 outlay came from Championship clubs who paid £10,131,314, while £2,241,771 came from League One clubs and £366,781 from League Two.

Middlesbrough spent the most individually, with £1,464,200 spent across a total of 29 transactions. Newcastle were the only other club to spend over seven figures, paying £1,073,076 over 39 transactions.

Southampton (£401,248) spent the most in League One, while Notts County (£246,483) accounted for over two-thirds of the money spent by League Two clubs.

The new Football League chairman, Greg Clarke, voiced his concern over the rise, saying: "Given the economic climate, it is worrying to see such a significant amount leaking from the game. This year's figures demonstrate a considerable increase on those of last season and it is essential that clubs work to reduce this liability over the coming campaign."

The 14 clubs not to pay anything to agents were Accrington Stanley, Barnet, Bournemouth, Chesterfield, Crewe Alexandra, Dagenham & Redbridge, Darlington, Exeter City, Hereford United, Lincoln City, Macclesfield Town, Port Vale, Stockport County and Tranmere Rovers.

Celtic centre-half Darren O'Dea has joined Championship side Ipswich Town in a loan deal until 17 January.

The 23-year-old finished last season as a regular in Celtic's defence after a difficult stay at Reading. But the arrival of Daniel Majstorovic means Hoops boss Neil Lennon was willing to let O'Dea leave.

The Republic of Ireland international is available to Ipswich manager Roy Keane for Saturday's league trip to Crystal Palace.

Before the deal was confirmed Lennon had said: "He doesn't want to be a squad player, he wants to play and I can't guarantee him that.

"Ipswich have given him the opportunity to go and play and I think it will be good for him to get some games under his belt because we're bringing in other people allied to the ones we've got."

O'Dea, who has one senior Republic of Ireland cap, joined Reading in September but fell out of favour in his last two months at the Madejski Stadium.

He fought his way back into the Celtic side on his return to Glasgow in January, first under Tony Mowbray and then under Lennon when the present boss took over as caretaker.

Sweden international Majstorovic made the switch to Celtic Park from AEK Athens on Monday.

Source: BBC Football