Football: Wimbledon snap up pounds 1.6m Hughes

The Northern Ireland international winger Michael Hughes has joined Wimbledon for pounds 1.6m.

Hughes, who was left out of the West Ham squad for Wednesday's 4-0 defeat at Arsenal, has been tracked by Wimbledon's manager, Joe Kinnear, for several weeks. A straight cash deal was struck yesterday despite interest from the Hammers' manager, Harry Redknapp, in the Dons' striker Dean Holdsworth.

Redknapp made a pounds 1.9m offer for the Everton left-back Andy Hinchcliffe yesterday. Blackburn and Tottenham have also been watching the England left-back's progress after his lay-off with a knee ligament injury.

The former Scotland defender Richard Gough has answered an emergency call from his old club, Rangers, and will return to Ibrox five months after leaving to play in the United States. The Scottish champions have struck a deal with Major League Soccer, which owns Gough's three-year contract with Kansas City Wizards. He will be available sometime next month, depending on the Wizards' progress in the MLS play-offs.

Trevor Francis is to try to bring the Plymouth right-back Mark Patterson to Birmingham City. The Blues' manager has given the experienced Patterson, who was formerly with Derby, a trial and is close to agreeing a pounds 250,000 deal.

Manchester City are are set to announce a loss of almost pounds 4m. The Maine Road chairman, Francis Lee, once again under pressure following a poor start to the new season, will tell next month's annual general meeting that City lost pounds 3,937,395 during their first season outside the Premiership. The club raised almost pounds 12m with a new shares issue last season, but that has been wiped out already.