(What with the birth of MicroSoftie, the friendly match with France and an unusually slow weekend, this bit of news seems to have got lost.)

From Teamtwaddle.

Manchester City are reported to have failed with a "substantial" bid for Newcastle defender Andy Griffin, while Laurent Charvet is also a target.

It's thought that City chief Joe Royle offered in the region of #2million for the 21 year old, but for one reason or another the bid failed. Griffin has failed to earn a regular shirt at St James' Park since his #1.5million move from Stoke City back in January 1998. Whether Royle makes a renewed effort to sign the player remains to be seen but he seems desperate to strengthen his defence after Richard Edgehill made a poor start to the season.

Royle is also believed to be showing an interest in Griffin's team-mate Laurent Charvet.

(Now it's obvious to us that Griffin is the natural successor to Barton. And as soon as our defensive injury crisis has eased I hope City are still interested in Charvet as this would be a good bit of business for us.)

-- Anonymous, September 04, 2000

Answers

Saw this in either Ronnie or on the Orificial s*ite. Apparently Charvet had a good game against their reserves last week, so hopefully Joe Royle will switch his target. This is to replace Richard Rdghill who has been dropped and stripped relieved of the captaincy after some cr@p performances so far in the PL.

-- Anonymous, September 04, 2000

I believe BR has told City to bog off regarding Griffen. I certainly hope so - although he does seem to be yet another who is injury prone.

-- Anonymous, September 04, 2000