City in for Reid as Distin seals £4.5m Boro deal

Manchester City are considering a bid for Tottenham Hotspur's Andy Reid, although they may be unwilling to meet the £3m asking price as they also want to recruit a central defender with the £4.5m they will receive from Middles-brough for Sylvain Distin.

Spurs are prepared to allow Reid to go and have already proposed offering him to Wigan Athletic as part of a deal to bring right-back Pascal Chimbonda to White Hart Lane, but may want to delay a sale until nearer to the close of the transfer window.

Middlesbrough were last night discussing personal terms with Distin after having an offer for the Frenchman accepted. Distin rejected the offer of a new deal at Eastlands, and his existing deal has less than 12 months to run.

Middlesbrough have earmarked the 28-year-old as a replacement in the centre of defence for Gareth Southgate, who retired as a player after being appointed the club's manager earlier this summer.

Boro have long trailed the player, who was also wanted by Portsmouth before they signed Sol Campbell last week, despite last-minute interest from City.

Reid, who is injured, had wanted to stay at Spurs but does not figure in manager Martin Jol's plans. However, Jol would like to have a new left-winger in place before he sells the 24-year-old Irish international.

City yesterday completed the £2m purchase of Swedish international goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson to replace David James following his move to Portsmouth.

The 24-year-old, who has been excused international duty to finalise the move, trained with City on Monday but only agreed personal terms yesterday. Isaksson, who failed to make an impression at Juventus before succeeding Chelsea's Petr Cech at French club Rennes, has 42 caps, was his country's first choice during the World Cup and has long been linked with a move to England.