Johnson bid stepped up
Pre-season training kicked-off for Latics today with Steve Bruce hoping Andy Johnson will soon be part of it.
The club are believed to be well down the road in negotiations to bring in the Everton striker for a fee in the region of 10m.
That would shatter their record transfer pay-out which is currently the 5.5m they paid for Emile Heskey two years ago.
Latics are in competition with Sunderland for the England international, but the fact 27-year-old Johnson doesn't want to uproot his family from Cheshire has swung things in Wigan's favour.
Everton are reluctant sellers with Toffees boss David Moyes previously claiming the player wasn't for sale.
But as Moyes needs funds to finance summer transfer dealings at Goodison, he will allow Johnson to leave if the price is right and if the player states he wants a move.
Should Latics land the frontman, it would be a case of second time lucky after former manager Paul Jewell bid 8.5m two years ago.
That offer was accepted by Crystal Palace, only for Everton to match it and Johnson to decide he wanted to go to Merseyside.
Bedford-born Johnson had previously played under Bruce briefly at Birmingham, but he let him leave St Andrews in a swap deal for Palace's Clinton Morrison.
Click next page for more ...Capped eight times, Johnson would bring the quality to the forward line which Bruce thinks is necessary to take Latics to the next level in the Premier League.
He wants a striker who can feed off talisman Heskey and put away chances – Latics were the second lowest scorers in the top flight last term.
Johnson is currently with Everton at a training camp in Switzerland but
returns next Monday, the day before Latics fly out to Austria.
Last season, he netted nine goals for the Toffees, including one in their 2-1 win over Latics at the JJB in January.
At the moment Bruce has four strikers at his disposal – Heskey,
Marlon King, Antoine Sibierski and Henri Camara.
He's already let two go since the end of last term – Marcus Bent and Julius Aghahowa – and further departures can't be ruled out.
Sibierski has been mentioned as a possible makeweight in an expected move for Birmingham midfielder Olivier Kapo.
And despite only arriving in January in a 4m deal, King found himself the subject of an enquiry from Derby last week.
Rams boss Jewell revealed the club couldn't afford his wages and transfer fee, although didn't rule out an attempt to take the Jamaica
international on loan.
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Weather for Wigan
Thursday 02 September 2010
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Temperature: 8 C to 22 C
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