Parker and Santa Cruz set to arrive

A couple of reports have emerged this evening suggesting that in the early part of this week we should tie up a further two deals, with Roque Santa Cruz and Scott Parker arriving at the club.

Sky Sports suggests Parker will arrive for a fee of £12 million:

Sky Sports has learnt that Parker has already engaged with City officials over personal terms and will substantially improve his current deal of £70,000 per week should the move be pushed through.

Whilst Roque Santa Cruz will arrive for £18 million plus the out of favour Tal Ben Haim, according to The Guardian, which also suggests rumoured interest in Kolo Toure, Craig Bellamy, Shay Given and Jermain Defoe - but we are unlikely to land all our reported targets:

City are also willing to swell the bank accounts of a number of other players, notably Craig Bellamy of West Ham, Jermain Defoe of Portsmouth, Arsenal's Kolo Touré and the Newcastle United goalkeeper Shay Given. There are, however, complications in each case. City are not entirely confident West Ham will agree to sell them two of their best players at once, so that might rule out Bellamy. If so, that would prompt City to accelerate their interest in Defoe even though it is known he would rather rejoin Tottenham Hotspur. Portsmouth want a fee of around £20m, which would be no problem to City but has created difficulties for Spurs.

After the debacle of Saturday's exit when Hughes was critical of elements of the squad, it was likely that interest in any targets would be swiftly followed up. It is interesting that Ben Haim's name was included in the report of the Santa Cruz signing - particularly as it stated that he was not brought to the club on the say so of Hughes.

Given the form of both Dunne and Richards this season, there has been a great opportunity for him to have won one of the positions at the back, yet when he has figured he has looked equally ill at ease.

One thing it does suggest though is that by sanctioning further deals it seems clear that Hughes is going nowhere and appears very much to have the support of those in charge for the long term.