Birmingham bid for Taylor

Birmingham City have made an undisclosed bid for the Blackburn Rovers centre-half Martin Taylor as they seek to find a replacement for the injured Matthew Upson.

The Birmingham manager, Steve Bruce, is looking to strengthen his defence, especially as Upson is sidelined until the middle of February with an ankle injury sustained in the FA Cup defeat of Blackburn last Saturday.

Taylor has fallen out of favour at Ewood Park and Rovers' manager, Graeme Souness, will be tempted to sell the 24-year-old former England Under-21 international even though he has defensive injury concerns of his own. Souness is looking to raise funds to buy Leicester City's Muzzy Izzet but the Midlands club claim Izzet wants to stay, while a loan move for the Real Sociedad winger, Javi De Pedro, is unlikely because Sociedad want a fee.