Christie heads Keegan's list of alternatives

Kevin Keegan will try to sign Derby County's Malcolm Christie after missing out on Robbie Fowler. The Manchester City manager has inquired about the England Under-21 forward, who is available at a paltry fee because of Derby's financial problems.

Christie has been a target for Middlesbrough and Leeds, but the collapse of Fowler's move to Maine Road leaves City in the strongest position. Keegan wants a new partner for Nicolas Anelka and Christie would be within his budget, giving him scope for other signings.

Derby will sell for around £2m, plus some instalments, and City will have more cash to offer than Middlesbrough, who have proposed a loan deal. Christie is top of City's list of options, which also includes Miroslav Klose, who is rated at £6m by Kaiserslautern, Celta Vigo's Benedict McCarthy and Feyenoord's Pierre van Hooijdonk. McCarthy was a loan target, while Van Hooijdonk, although available at about £1m, would be costly in terms of wages and is at the wrong end of his career.

The signing of Christie could enable Keegan to recruit Bordeaux's David Sommeil, a £5m deal to sign the central defender having faltered because the bulk of City's transfer budget was earmarked for Fowler. Talks about meeting Bordeaux's asking price in staged payments could be completed over the weekend. Sommeil is keen to move before the transfer window closes and Bordeaux would prefer to sell now rather than wait until his contract runs out in the next 18 months.

Keegan yesterday expressed his disappointment at the collapse of the Fowler deal but rejected talk of a split with David Bernstein, his chairman. Bernstein had tried to alter the terms of the deal with his Leeds counterpart, Peter Ridsdale, following Fowler's medical. The striker has had injury problems in recent years.

"I think everybody in this deal – and I mean everybody – will look at things we could have done better," Keegan said. "But all this talk of divisions – there has been some lively debate but divisions is too strong a word. I don't know the conversation that happened between my chairman and Peter Ridsdale. I wasn't party to that. I am not annoyed about that. My chairman was trying to do his job properly and he got on with it."

Keegan defended the right of City's medical staff to express their concern at the move. "This deal involved in excess of £10m, whichever way you looked at it, depending on appearances, so that is an awful lot of money," he said. "We have to let the medical people have an opinion."