Hamann to join City as Saints snap up Wright-Phillips

The City manager, Stuart Pearce, who yesterday sold his young striker Bradley Wright-Phillips to South-ampton, has moved for Hamann following the collapse of his proposed transfer to Bolton Wanderers .

The Bolton manager, Sam Allardyce, seemed to be close to signing the former Germany international until the 32-year-old stalled, saying that his wife was against the transfer.

Allardyce then pulled out, leaving Pearce to step in. City hope that Hamann will sign a two-year contract before the weekend.

If Hamann puts pen to paper he will become Pearce's third major signing of the summer following the signing of Ousmane Dabo, from Lazio, and Paul Dickov from Blackburn.

Pearce believes that Wright-Phillips' departure to the St Mary's Stadium - where he has signed a three-year contract - is good business for City.

It is believed that City will net £1m from the deal when add-on clauses are included, although a substantial downpayment has been made, with £250,000 supplied by the "Coca-Cola Win A Player Promotion".

Saints won the money through a lifelong-fan, Chantelle Legg. Bradley Wright-Phillips is the younger brother of Shaun Wright-Phillips, who last summer joined Chelsea from City for £21m.

With the recent arrival of Dickov, and with Andy Cole, Darius Vassell and Georgios Samaras ahead of him in the pecking order, Wright-Phillips would have found himself the fifth-choice forward for the coming season at City.

"Commercially, this is a good deal for the club but also for Bradley at this stage in his career," said Pearce.

"Like his brother, he was a popular member of the squad and an extremely likeable lad. As with Shaun, he will always be welcome back at this club."

Another player expected to be shown the door at Eastlands is Joey Barton, who continues to stall on the signing of a new contract, and with just one year remaining on his current deal. With no sign of any commitment from the 23-year-old, and in light of Hamann's impending arrival, it is believed Pearce is ready to listen to offers. Pearce will be disappointed to lose Barton especially as he has stood by the midfielder during some troubled times last season when he was booed by supporters for refusing to sign a contract extension.

Rumours of a swap deal involving Celtic's unsettled midfielder Stilian Petrov, however, have been stringently denied by Bhoys chief executive Peter Lawwell, who said: "Accusations we have contacted Manchester City offering Stilian are completely false. We wish Stilian to remain at the club."