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Dickson
Etuhu |
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Fulham want to take advantage of Roy Keane's rebuilding plans by luring Dickson
Etuhu away from Sunderland.
Fulham boss Roy Hodgson has made tentative inquiries about the 26-year-old Nigerian
international, fully aware that Etuhu's first-team chances are likely to be limited
this season.
And now he is weighing up whether or not to come in with a firm bid for a player
Sunderland signed from Norwich City last summer for £1.5million
Just like Sunderland, Fulham are engaged in restructuring and, after a busy summer
in the transfer market, see the acquisition of a defensive midfielder as the last
piece of the jigsaw.
Hodgson has made after the Cottagers avoided relegation
on the last day of the season include £10million striker Andy Johnson from Everton
and West Ham striker and defender Bobby Zamora and John Pantsil for a combined £6million.
Hodgson has also acquired West Brom's Hungarian international Zoltan Gera, Swedish
defender Fredrik Stoor and Middlesbrough goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.
The last player on his shopping list is a defensive midfielder who could provide
effective cover for Danny Murphy.
Murphy will be 32 this year and Hodgson does not plan to use the hard-working midfielder
in every game.
The Fulham boss had wanted Torino's Australian-born Vince Garella, but the Italian
club have quoted him £4million for someone who would effectively be a squad player.
Etuhu has proven himself capable, over the course of the last season at the Stadium
of Light, of playing Premier League
But a succession of injuries have contributed towards stalling any progress and
he looks to have dropped down the pecking order – even his squad number dropping
from four to 26.
Ironically, central midfield has gone from one of the weakest areas of the Sunderland
squad to one of its strongest over the course of the year and the club now has a
surfeit of players in that department.
Andy Reid, Kieran Richardson, Steed Malbranque, Dean Whitehead, Teemu Tainio, El
Hadji Diouf, Grant Leadbitter and Dwight Yorke all play there.
And in Whitehead, Tainio, Leadbitter and Yorke; Etuhu has players who are likely
to be ahead of him in Roy Keane's selection plans.
The Nigerian signed a four-year contract just last year, but it looks increasingly
as though Etuhu will be a player who will be allowed to leave the club if the right
offer comes along. And, at the moment, Fulham are favourites to provide it.