Transfer rumour round-up - January 8th

The Sunday Mirror reported yesterday that West Ham are to make a £10 million bid for Joey Barton. Puzzles me this one, as most of the press speculate that Barton has a £5.5 million escape clause so why West Ham would bid £10 million is a strange one.

Sylvain Distin was again the subject of speculation this weekend with Chelsea believed to have moved away from Micah Richards and are preparing a £3 million bid for the defender, whilst the Daily Mail reports that Tottenham made a 'cheeky' £500,000 offer for soon to be out of contract defender. Distin himself though told the clubs website:

"I want to stay playing in the Premiership and my
preference is to stay here at Manchester City.
"The next contract I will
sign is very important for me as I am now 29 years old and I need everything to
be correct with it.
"I have ambition and I want to make sure that the next
contract I sign is with somebody who has the same ambitions as me."

One player seemingly on the way out though is Claudio Reyna, who is believed to moving back to the MLS for family reasons. Whilst it hasn't been confirmed, Stuart Pearce did state:

"For his personal reasons, we are in talks with him and
his representatives due to that he might want to go back to the States".
"That's purely a family scenario. Until anything is resolved on that, he
stays a Manchester City player".

Alledged target Samir Nasri has refuted claims he is set for a move to the club, whilst not being one to wildly speculate, Paul Dickov was seen on a flight from Manchester to Southampton earlier today. A possible exit on the cards?