Bruce set to sign two new recruits
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Your support makes all the difference.Birmingham City yesterday agreed an undisclosed fee with Tottenham Hotspur for the midfielder Stephen Clemence and a £1.5m fee with Ipswich Town for the left-back Jamie Clapham, on a busy day in the transfer market for their manager Steve Bruce.
Clemence will join the Blues subject to passing a medical and agreeing personal terms, while Clapham will ease the club's defensive crisis if he agrees terms. The 24-year-old son of the former England goalkeeper Ray has just returned to full fitness after recovering from a long-term injury. He has made one appearance for Tottenham this season.
The Ipswich manager, Joe Royle, said: "I am very sad that we have accepted this offer [for Clapham]. This season Jamie has been fantastic."
The imminent arrival of Clemence and Clapham follows the signing of the Lens full-back, Ferdinand Coly, and the Bordeaux striker, Christophe Dugarry, on loan with a view to making the moves permanent in the summer.
West Bromwich Albion's bid to sign the Macedonian international Artim Sakiri has run into trouble. Gary Megson, the West Bromwich manager, only wanted to take the midfielder – who scored against England from a corner last year – on loan, while Sakiri's Bulgarian club, CSKA Sofia, want to sell him for £400,000. The deal now looks unlikely to go ahead, leaving Megson frustrated again by the lack of funds available to him.
By signing Lee Bowyer, West Ham United will finally complete a deal that should have been sealed several years ago, according to the club's Academy director, Tony Carr. Bowyer was brought up in Poplar, the heart of West Ham territory, but went to Charlton as a youngster, and they reaped the rewards when they sold him to Leeds United more than six years ago for £2.7m – then a British record for a teenager.
But with only the finer points of his contract to be ironed out – the midfielder returned to Leeds yesterday after a medical to finalise personal details – Carr is looking forward to seeing Bowyer in a claret and blue shirt at last.
"You do know about these youngsters as schoolboys. It was touch and go whether he would go to West Ham or Charlton, and for whatever reason he chose them," said Carr, who denied claims that West Ham rejected Bowyer as a youngster. Bowyer played for the same Sunday league team as the West Ham striker Jermain Defoe,
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