Middlesbrough were yesterday closing in on Barcelona's unsettled £7 million striker Dani. Boro manager Bryan Robson is in Spain and is understood to have flown out to the Catalan city with chairman Steve Gibson and chief executive Keith Lamb to renew a chase which started last summer.

A court case involving George Weah, on loan at Manchester City earlier this season, was postponed yesterday after the former world player of the year failed to show up at a Lisbon court. Jorge Costa claims Weah head-butted him after a Champions League match between FC Porto and AC Milan in 1996.

Talks on changes to football's transfer system rumbled on yesterday with the international players' union remaining sceptical that any deal is imminent. A meeting between the union FIFPro and the European Commission in Brussels ended with some progress made but still areas of difference. An EC spokesman said agreement had yet to be reached in two areas - penalties for players, agents or clubs who breach a contract unilaterally, and a framework for compensating clubs who train young players who then move teams.

Former Wolves boss Stan Cullis has died at the age of 85. Cullis, a cultured centre-half and former England captain, had been living at a Worcestershire nursing home and had been unwell for some time. He managed Wolves to three league titles and two FA Cup triumphs, and Winterbottom believes he deserves to be compared with legendary Manchester United boss Sir Matt Busby. Bayern Munich have entered the race to sign Tottenham defender Sol Campbell when he becomes a free agent at the end of the season. Bayern vice-president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told German newspaper Bild: "We're hoping that it will happen.