Routledge set to make Rodgers jolly?

Maybe that's the key to shifting our unwanted fringe squad players off the wage bill: post something about the fact that interest in them seems to have waned. No sooner had I written about Wayne Routledge being left in the shop window than the BBC report he's been the subject of a £1.5m bid from Brendan Rodgers' Swansea.

Routledge would be a perfect fit for the Swans' system, predicated as it is upon flying wingers with an eye for goal like Scott Sinclair and Nathan Dyer. And of course, as Paul has pointed out, he might prove to be the vital oil in the cogs of our protracted bid for the Welsh club's left-back Neil Taylor - indeed, given the players' respective values, a straight swap deal probably isn't out of the question.

Meanwhile a clutch of ex-Mags have been on the move: former Toon and Leeds teammates Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer have joined Stoke and Ipswich respectively (the latter reunited with Agent Chopra), while Steven Caldwell has signed for Chris Hughton's Birmingham. It's also been confirmed that we've missed out on Yohan Cabaye's ex-Lille colleague Gervinho, who's become Arsenal's first acquisition of the summer.