Cut-price Ricketts still too dear for Boro

Bolton's Manager, Sam Allardyce, has cut Michael Ricketts' asking price to £5m, but that has still proved too big a price for Middlesbrough.

Allardyce is willing to reduce the original valuation for a quick sale of his transfer-seeking forward, but Boro are prepared to pay only £3m. The fee is also almost double what Tottenham offered recently in a package including £1.5m cash plus the versatile Gary Doherty.

Allardyce is holding out for the money as he wants some left to sign three new faces – the Valencia striker Salva Ballesta, the Nantes target man Pierre Yves Andre and the Lyon centre-half Florent Laville. Boro are considering whether to increase their offer, but they are also working within a budget and are tying up a double loan deal for Derby County duo Malcolm Christie and Chris Riggott.

The Tottenham misfit Sergei Rebrov has passed a medical and is expected to complete a move to Fenerbahce within the next 24 hours. The clubs have agreed an 18-month loan deal for the Ukrainian international striker with an option for the Turkish side to sign him on a permanent basis. Rebrov, a club record £11m signing by George Graham in June 2000, did not figure in the first team plans of the Spurs manager Glenn Hoddle.

The Greece international defender Leonidas Vokolos is to have a trial with West Ham. The 32-year-old central defender has been given permission to discuss a move after losing his Panathinaikos first-team place.

Vokolos, who has made three league appearances this season for the Greek League leaders, has fallen from favour as the new coach, Sergio Markarian, has paired Sotiris Kyrgiakos with the Danish international Rene Henriksen. Vokolos's last full appearance came in December.

Blackburn's manager, Graeme Souness, hopes to complete the loan signing of Vratislav Gresko in time for Saturday's Premiership encounter with Aston Villa. The Slovakian defender is due to travel to Lancashire from Italy today for a medical which should see him join Rovers from Parma until the end of the season.

Souness' defensive options will be reduced by the forthcoming suspensions of Andy Todd and Lucas Neill. Craig Short will miss today's match against the bottom club, West Ham, after picking up a calf strain against Sunderland on Saturday.

Aside from Short, the England international David Dunn will miss the Upton Park trip after a recurrence of his long-standing hamstring injury, and Damien Duff is also out with hamstring trouble. The full-back John Curtis has been drafted into the squad and could start against a side who snatched a 2-2 draw earlier in the season at Ewood Park.

Manchester United will re-turf their troublesome Old Trafford pitch for the second time in two months today. The club's managing director, David Gill, blamed the wet weather and the fact that United have played six home games in a month for the deterioration in the playing surface, which cut up badly in United's 6-0 FA Cup thrashing of West Ham United on Sunday.

"This will be the last time this season," he said. "It has been a very wet winter. When we put this pitch down, we didn't realise we'd have twice as many games as we expected, with the FA and League Cup home draws."

United expect the new surface, which costs £100,000, to be ready for their next home game, against Manchester City on 9 February. They hope it will last until the Champions' League final, which United are staging on 28 May.