City lead Yakubu chase

Manchester City are firmly at the head of the queue to sign Yakubu Aiyegbeni, skysports.com understands.

Portsmouth, Aston Villa and West Ham are understood to have been keeping close tabs on the Middlesbrough striker.

Boro insist that Yakubu is part of their plans, but as skysports.com revealed earlier this summer - the Nigerian is determined to make a move away from Teesside.

Yakubu is now attracting a great deal of interest and it is believed his move away from The Riverside will be completed before he is needed to return for pre-season training.

Boro have admitted defeat in their bid to keep Yakubu - although the fee, which will be in excess of £10million - will smooth over the departure.

The Teessiders are still in need of major reinforcements on the right side, with a full-back and midfielder believed to be very high on Gareth Southgate's wanted list.