Paraguayan football star Roque Santa Cruz is set to join Blackburn from Manchester city. Santa Cruz has scored only four times since joining City in July 2009 and Hughes's year-long pursuit to bring him to Eastlands, for £17.5m, now looks to have been one of the more wasteful transfers of modern times.

Manchester City striker Roque Santa Cruz has said that he is not interested in a loan move to Lazio. Reports claim that Lazio and City have reached an agreement for the 29-year-old striker who would arrive in Rome on a loan basis with the option to stay permanently beyond the summer.

However, Santa Cruz says he is not interested in the move as he cannot leave his family for six months. "For what I know I am not a Lazio player and I will not accept a loan deal for six months," he told Paraguayan Radio 780 AM.