Leicester City set to sign Nolberto Solano
The Peru international is a free agent and trained with City yesterday.
Now manager Nigel Pearson, who knows Solano from his days as a coach at Newcastle, could offer the 35-year-old a short-term deal until the end of the season.
If he signs this morning, Solano could go straight into the squad for City's FA Cup fourth round tie at Cardiff City tomorrow. Pearson wants to improve City's quality in the final third of the pitch and he rates Solano highly.
The only question mark over Solano is his age, but a short- term deal may not present too much of a risk for City.
Solano is certainly not short of match practice. He returned to England from his native Peru last month after finishing the season with Universitario de Deportes.
He scored a penalty against Alianza Lima to help his club claim their 25th Peruvian Primera Division title.
Solano had been training with Colchester United earlier this month, but City now seem favourites to sign him if Pearson decides to offer him a contract.
Meanwhile, Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish has told City he is willing to listen to offers for defender Martin Taylor.
City have targeted the 6ft 4in defender to bolster their threadbare back line, especially after it emerged Bruno Berner will again be missing for the trips to Cardiff tomorrow and Barnsley on Tuesday with a calf injury, while Aleksandar Tunchev's injury woes seem no closer to ending.
Taylor, nicknamed Tiny, has not joined Birmingham's training trip to Malta this week and Pearson has confirmed he is interested in the 30-year-old centre half, who has just returned to full fitness after ankle ligament damage.
"He is a player we are possibly interested in, but we will see where that takes us," said Pearson, who consistently states his reluctance to discuss transfer targets. "I don't want to say more at this time."
However, McLeish admitted that Taylor had been given permission to speak to City.
"Tiny has been given permission to speak to Leicester, but we've heard nothing back as of yet," said McLeish.
"He's out of contract in the summer and if Leicester wanted to do some kind of deal then we would listen."
City would probably prefer a loan at present, but Blues do hold a two-year option on Taylor's contract and may favour either a permanent deal or a loan with an agreement in place for a permanent transfer at the end of the season.
Meanwhile, young striker Ashley Chambers has joined Grimsby Town until the end of the season. The 19-year-old has joined the Mariners to gain vital first-team experience, although Pearson will certainly not demand Chambers starts every game. "It will be good experience for him," said Pearson. "It is a youth loan so we can have a 24-hour recall.
"He needs to get some football in. We have had a number of players go out on loan and it is good experience for them.
"Chambers has been out on loan before this season, to Wycombe, and didn't play, so it depends where they go and how it goes.
"I wouldn't guarantee players are going to play so I wouldn't expect other managers to guarantee our players are going to play when they go there.
"It is an opportunity for our young players to find out what they are made of."
Nolberto Solano
Comment on this story