Newcastle United hope to make a long-awaited summer transfer market breakthrough despite Lyon rejecting their £6.9m offer for the striker Bafétimbi Gomis on Sunday.
Although the Ligue 1 club want £8.6m and Gomis - dubbed "baby Drogba" in France - is also coveted by Marseille and Fulham, negotiations over a compromise are continuing and Newcastle remain optimistic of sealing a deal for a 27-year-old with only 12 months remaining on his contract at Lyon.
With Alan Pardew, Newcastle's manager, not directly involved in transfers, Joe Kinnear, the club's controverisal new director of football, is under increasing pressure to deliver the two new forwards Pardew craves.
Apart from the twin pursuit of Gomis and Aston Villa's Darren Bent, Kinnear is exploring the possibility of signing Loïc Rémy, another striker, on a season's loan from Queens Park Rangers. Rémy, who almost moved to Tyneside from Marseille for nearly £9m in January but instead opted for £70,000-a-week wages at Loftus Road is on bail after being arrested in May on suspicion of rape, an allegation he denies.
Depending on the rate of progress in the Gomis deal it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Kinnear's first signing could be the unlikely figure of Phil Bardsley from Sunderland, though. The full-back has been deemed surplus to requirements by Paolo Di Canio after a well-documented night out in a casino late last season but is on Newcastle's shopping list.
Meanwhile Pardew's side won a friendly at Blackpool on Sunday 1-0, thanks to a Shola Ameobi goal. During the match Newcastle fans - who appear underwhelmed by Bardsley's potential arrival - were reported as chanting: "Stand up if you hate Kinnear" and unfurled a banner emblazoned with "Support the team not the regime".
Papiss Cissé, who last week agreed to wear kit bearing the logo of Wonga, Newcastle's sponsor, did not travel to Blackpool. He remained on Tyneside working on his fitness alongside Hatem Ben Arfa, who missed much of last season through injury.
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