£4m Damien Duff heading for Fulham amid Newcastle turmoil

Target: Duff is the subject of a £4m offerMike Ashley's failureto sell Newcastlehas prompted furtherfall-out, withsenior players saidto be disillusioned, DamienDuff contemplating a move to Fulham and a steady flow ofmoney placed on a return forJoe Kinnear on Thursday. Newcastle have received a £4millionbid for Duff from a Barclays PremierLeague club, Duff having rejected thechance of moving to Olympiakos. RoyHodgson's Fulham are favourites,though the Republic of Irelandmidfielder may also be tempted bythe idea of linking up again with formerRepublic manager MickMcCarthy at Wolves. Hull City arealso interested.With Everton having asked aboutSteven Taylor's availability,Newcastle's squad suddenly lookvulnerable to Premier League clubs. Duff, 30, cost £5m when he joinedNewcastle from Chelsea three yearsago. He has played under five managersin that time and two caretakermanagers, and the present temporaryappointment, Chris Hughton,said Newcastle would haveto enter the transfer market quicklyif more players leave.Since the end of last season theyhave lost Michael Owen, MarkViduka, Obafemi Martins, SebastienBassong, Habib Beye, ClaudioCacapa, Peter Lovenkrands andDavid Edgar. The priority has beento cut the wage bill but Hughtonknows a core must be retained whocan mount a promotion challenge. He said: 'There's no doubt, if wewere to lose players, replacementswould have to be brought in.'But Hughton added that therehave been no discussions withmanaging director Derek Llambiasabout recruitment.  Second coming: Kinnear has been heavily linked with a return to Newcastle'We have spokenbut all the efforts from the club havebeen in selling the club.' Taylor's description of Newcastlelast Saturday as 'a joke' revealed the home-grown centre half's intentions.Everton are seeking such a defenderand are understood to have pulledback from signing Philippe Senderos.Taylor wants Alan Shearerappointed but there was no freshnews on that front.'The sooner thereis a line drawn on the situation thebetter for everybody,' Hughton saidof the potential sale. David O'Leary had been soundedout by Llambias were the club to betaken off the market again by Ashley. The Irishman is thought to be keenbut the odds being cut on Thursdaywere Kinnear's, even though it is onlya week since he said he would not befit enough to be a manager untilaround October. A large fan backlash would beexpected should Kinnear return. Asit is, Newcastle may attract a crowdof fewer than 32,000 to St James'Park for the Championship visit ofReading tomorrow. If so, that wouldbe the club's lowest league crowd formore than 15 years. West Ham close in on Arsenal target Marouane Chamakh by offering 50 per cent sell-on clause for Bordeaux strikerHangeland happy at Fulham as Arsenal stalk their £15m Norway defender FULHAM FC

Source: Daily_Mail