In the Championship - Clubs for sale

Last updated : 18 June 2007 By Tony Scholes
Alan Thompson - a target for Hull
The changes at Hull came right out of the blue and former chairman and owner Adam Pearson claimed it to have been the best kept secret in football. Pearson is no longer the man in charge after selling out to Paul Duffen.

That's immediately sprung the fake tanned Phil Brown into action and he's already got two players on his shopping list. One of them us Jamie Cureton, who is also according to the Hull press wanted by Burnley, and the other is Alan Thompson from Celtic, a player who ended last season enjoying the Elland Road relegation party.

Meanwhile Jon Parkin remains at the KC although Stoke are still keen to take him to the Windy City on a permanent basis. Some outrageous figures are being quoted for the somewhat large former Macclesfield striker. If he does move to Stoke he could find himself playing against Real Madrid. They are both in Austria at the same time for pre-season training and Stoke are hoping to fix up a game against the new La Liga Champions.

As Hull was sold, QPR went a step closer with news that their owner Gianni Paladini is ready to sell up, claiming he does not have the finance to fund a Championship club. That news will have been greeted with great delight by the QPR fans who have seen their club turned into a soap opera under the Italian's leadership - WestEnders perhaps.

There are no new players at Loftus Road but a former player has returned to the club this morning. Paul Parker, who went on to play for Manchester United and England has returned as the Commercial & Communications Director (Temporary). There's no indication to how long is meant by temporary, presumably as long as Paladini remains in charge.

It's been all off the field stuff at Coventry this week. Although not directly involved, they saw their manager Iain Dowie lose a court case against Palace owner Simon Jordan over the way Dowie wormed his way out of his contract.

To add to that their acting chairman Geoffrey Robinson has called for an EGM ahead of an expected offer for the club from America. Now wait for this one. One of the items on the agenda will be a request for shareholders to transfer the option they have to buy back half of the Ricoh to Robinson as security for his loans. Current director loans total £11 million with £8 million of that from Robinson. I won't comment, but I will point them in the direction of such as York, Wrexham and Wimbledon regarding transferring such options to directors.

Billy Jones - one of two Preston signings in the last week
Let's get to some transfers and Paul Simpson has led the way this week with the signings of two players who were both playing League One football last season. The first to arrive was Crewe defender Billy Jones. Dario G had already bought Billy Jones from Exeter as Billy Jones replacement and so the first Billy Jones has now become a Preston player.

The youngster has been in demand almost since he made his debut for Dario G's Crewe, but it was always thought he would move to the Premiership rather than a side that can't quite make it there. Just a day or two later Karl Hawley signed after falling out of contract at Carlisle. It was Simpson who signed him for Carlisle.

Whilst at Preston, do you remember David Kelly? He was the assistant manager when Little Billy was in charge and needless to say, like the rest of the staff, he decided he wanted to move to Derby. Preston chairman Derek Shaw said no, but Simpson didn't want him on his staff, so Shaw put him on gardening leave for a year to prevent him working anywhere else.

It's a ridiculous situation, but he remains on gardening leave and Preston continue to refuse him a move to Derby. Surely there must come a time when a man is allowed to get on with his career. What Derby did to Preston last year was appalling, but what Preston are now doing to Kelly is hardly any better.

Jones by the way isn't the only defender to move out of Crewe in the last week. John Otsemobor has signed for Norwich. He was linked with us back in January, although Steve Cotterill denied there was anything in it. He's at Carrow Road now where there is surely going to be a departure soon. They are going out of their way to tell us there have been no offers for Robert Earnshaw, and that tells me one thing, they want to sell him and they are inviting offers.

Manager Peter Grant has shown some interest in both Billy Sharp and Freddy Eastwood, but he'll have to move quickly because Mick McCarthy is looking to buy up every young striker in the division. Sharp, Eastwood and now Kyle Lafferty are on his shopping list. If he gets them to add to his current strike forced there's going to be one hell of a fight for first team places.

Whilst Wolves try to buy up the division's strike force, and no there is nothing in the rumour that Neil Warnock has moved in there, then their neighbours West Brom continue to try to keep what they've got. They have already turned down big offers for both Diomansy Kamara and Jason Koumas. I reckon both will go during the summer and it would be no surprise to see Curtis Davis and Paul Robinson join them through the Hawthorns exit door.

Paul Hayes - has returned to Scunthorpe from Barnsley
Barnsley have gone all foreign again, and have signed Peruvian striker Miguel Mostto from Cienciano. The 29-year-old striker has a good record in Peruvian football and has twice been their league's leading scorer. To make room for him Paul Hayes has returned to Scunthorpe. I wonder if anyone will be making room for him at Glanford Park.

Bristol City thought they had made their first summer signing. They are keen on young Bochum winger Dennis Grote but the German outfit have turned down three offers from the newly promoted club. And there were suggestions that defender Peter Clarke could return to Blackpool, but his hopes have been dashed with manager Simon Grayson saying he's not interested in him.

Leicester look close to signing young Dutchman Sergio Hellings and don't be surprised to see Trevor Sinclair move there after leaving Manchester City. And with mention of the name Sinclair, Plymouth boss Ian Holloway is hoping to convince Jose Mourinho to let him have Scott Sinclair on loan for a year.

I'd be interested to listen into a conversation between those two managers. I wonder what Mourinho would make of Holloway. If he fails with Sinclair, he should be able to complete the signing of Kevin Gallen who has been released by his old club QPR.

Sheffield United think they will get back into the Premiership but despite thinking it should happen new boss Bryan Robson says he's building a squad for the Championship. This building, he'll have to explain that to me because as far as I can see no building has been done.

So far he's failed in an attempt to sign Besart Berisha from Hamburg (he's going somewhere else apparently) and he's sold one of the many Bramall Lane strikers Colin Kazim-Richards. It's certainly a fairy tale for the striker who two years ago moved from Bury to Brighton when the latter won the Coca-Cola Buy a Player competition. A year at Brighton, a year at Sheffield United, and now a big money sale to Fernebache for the Leyton born Turkish international.

Finally news of a former Newcastle striker. Do you need a clue? He maybe played Championship football last season in Wales. Apparently there has been a lot of interest from Premiership clubs but Peter Ridsdale expects him to be playing for Cardiff next season. That's right, they are keen to sell but haven't had an offer. It looks as though he's going to be Cardiff's former Newcastle striker again next season.