The Blackburn Rovers manager, Sam Allardyce, has said that Roque Santa Cruz could remain at Ewood Park beyond the transfer window despite an impending big-money offer for the striker from ­Manchester City.

City are expected to lodge a formal offer of £18m plus Tal Ben Haim this week and are confident of reuniting Mark Hughes with the striker he brought to Blackburn for £3.8m from Bayern Munich in 2007. That sum would enable Allardyce to re­invest in his relegation-threatened squad, with El Hadji Diouf a principal target, and could yet alter the manager's stance on the Paraguay international.

Hughes, the City manager, is known to be frustrated with the time it has taken his club to make official moves for Santa Cruz, as well as the West Ham pair of Scott Parker and Craig Bellamy, having wanted key purchases concluded in the opening week of the transfer window. And his pursuit of Santa Cruz is likely to be delayed further after Allardyce insisted Blackburn were under no pressure to sell.

"I wouldn't want to lose him but, at the end of the day, I'm not the chairman of the football club, John Williams is the chairman of the football club. Any bid would have to be considered both by me and the chairman," said Allardyce. "In the end that decision – I would hope – would be taken together but the chairman will always have the final say.

"I'm not saying we have to sell him or not because I don't think we will. I think that, whatever decision we come to, we will stick by it and stick by it together. But at the moment we have had no bid and personally I hope we don't get one."

Hughes is also frustrated by his attempts to improve the defence, seen by many as the area of his team that needs strengthening most urgently. Given the deterioration in the form of Micah Richards, Hughes wants Kolo Touré to take over in the centre of defence. City, again, had hoped to conclude the deal in the first week of the transfer window but the situation has been changing on an almost daily basis because of uncertainties in the player's state of mind and confusion about Arsenal's willingness to sell. City have also been linked with his brother, Yaya, of Barcelona. A source at the Spanish club was reported as saying: "There is an offer for Yaya but the club will do what is necessary to convince the player to stay."

Alex, Chelsea's Brazilian centre-half, is another option in defence but his club's reluctance to sell has already seen Real Madrid fail with a £20m bid last summer and City do not value him at that.

Richards yesterday responded to criticism of his performances this season, claiming he deserves his place in the side. "I think me and Richard Dunne had a good record last season but it has not been the same this season," he said. "I know some people have been critical of my performances this season but all players have dips and I'm staying positive. I know I give 100%. People are saying stuff about me looking slower or heavier but that's rubbish. I've played 100 first-team games, which I feel is a good achievement for someone of my age. I aim to make the most of my chances."

Blackburn's targets include Diouf, who is believed to be considered surplus to requirements by Ricky Sbragia at Sunderland. Though Allardyce has been non-committal on the mercurial talent he managed at Bolton, the player has been less discreet: "Sam Allardyce wants me to join him and Wigan's manager [Steve Bruce] has called as well. I am not allowed to make two transfers in the same season but can leave if the clubs agree. I don't want to leave on bad terms. I hope they will find a solution."

Everton's injured defender Joseph Yobo could be back in the first team before the end of the month. David Moyes also revealed there is a glimmer of hope that his striker James Vaughan could return before the end of the campaign.

Andrei Arshavin has re-emerged as one of Arsène Wenger's prime targets of the transfer window as the Arsenal manager seeks to strengthen his squad in an attempt to secure some silverware after four years without a major trophy.

Zenit St Petersburg, the 27-year-old's club, said preliminary talks had taken place with the Londoners, and their coach, Dick Advocaat, admitted the play-maker would probably leave. "I am aware Arsenal are interested," he said. "I am expecting Arshavin to leave. He is a top player and could play for any of the top teams in England. In principle I have already bought Arshavin's successor, [the Portugal forward] Danny, because I thought he was going to leave last year."

Arshavin confirmed the interest from Arsenal. "I hope the clubs can come to an agreement," he said.

Wenger has been reluctant to spend in the transfer window but has admitted that ­business could be done for an "exceptional talent". Arshavin would add attacking options and, though he would be cup-tied for the Champions League when Arsenal meet Roma in the last 16, this has not deterred Wenger.

Maxim Mitrofanov, Zenit's general director, hopes a deal can be done for the midfielder within the next fortnight, though there is some difference in valuation. Zenit want £20m while Wenger values Arshavin at least £5m less.

The Torino president, Urbano Cairo, meanwhile, is adamant he will not loan Alessandro Rosina to Arsenal after reports linked the Italian midfielder with a move to the London club. Whether reinforcements arrive or not, Emmanuel Adebayor has stressed that Arsenal must not give up the fight for the title, despite trailing the league leaders, Liverpool, by 10 points. "When we put everything together we can do well," the Togo striker said.

The England captain, Kevin Pietersen, will return from his holiday in Africa tomorrow to be told by the England and Wales Cricket Board that he cannot dictate terms about the future of the side and, in particular, its coach, Peter Moores.

An emergency teleconference of the England and Wales Cricket Board, which includes the chairman, Giles Clarke, and chief executive, David Collier, was held last night and there was a clear shift of support away from the autocratic Pietersen and towards Moores. It is unlikely to prevent the coach losing his job but it will serve as a warning that Pietersen's wishes will not necessarily be indulged after five very indifferent months in the job.

The outcome this week could even be that both men lose their jobs. The ECB has been angered that Pietersen has allowed the schism to be made so public, in effect forcing them to make a choice between the two men when the first instinct of Hugh Morris, England's managing director, was to broker a deal between them.

Morris is a personal friend of Moores and captained him at England Schoolboys level in 1981. He has canvassed opinion within the England dressing-room and discovered – or rather had his feelings confirmed, for he was in India with the side last month – that support for the egotistical Pietersen is less than unanimous, though respect for him as a great player is unquestioned.

Moores will not be England's long-term coach because important people at the ECB, including the players, remain unconvinced that he is the man to take England forward at a time when both India and South Africa have beaten Australia and now dominate the world game.

One of the favourites to take over from Moores, Kent's South African coach Graham Ford, has expressed an interest in taking over as England coach. Ford, speaking in Durban where he runs a cricket academy, said of succeeding the embattled England coach: "It would be a fantastic challenge. After my years with Kent I've a good idea of the players and the way things operate."

The 48-year-old Ford coached South Africa to eight Test series victories out of 11 between 1999 and 2002 and steered Kent to their Twenty20 triumph in 2007.

Harry Redknapp described the Tottenham Hotspur squad that he inherited from the previous regime at the club as "badly balanced and put together" as he looked forward to putting his own stamp on it.

His first signing, Jermain Defoe, who has arrived in a £15m deal from their old club Portsmouth, watched from the stands at White Hart Lane last night as the team rallied to beat Burnley 4-1 and put one foot in the final of the Carling Cup. The 26-year-old said he "never wanted to leave in the first place".

But Redknapp's post-match mood was of a man who realised the size of the challenge ahead of him. "What we haven't really got is a squad," said the Tottenham manager, who hopes to add Middlesbrough's Stewart Downing and the free agent Ghana midfielder Stephen Appiah, among others. "Look at the bench and, without disrespect, there are players who didn't have shirt numbers when I came here, like Taarabt, Boateng and Rocha. Suddenly they are all on your bench. We haven't got strength in depth, we've got no real cover."

Tottenham were abject in the first half, they trailed to Martin Paterson's goal and were booed off at the break. Defoe's homecoming looked in danger of falling flat. Redknapp, though, spelled out a few home truths during the interval.

"I did get into them at half-time," he said. "It went on for about 15 minutes. I said I'll find out an awful lot about you in the second half and we responded fantastically. It's the first time I've got into them but it did the trick. I look at us at times and we are very naive. A bit of know-how and experience is missing at times."

Redknapp found himself on the defensive as he reflected on the capture of Defoe, whom he also worked with during their time at West Ham United. "I see that people are saying that I raided Ports­mouth; I didn't," he said. "He was for sale. I said I wouldn't try and upset them. They wanted to sell, to us or Man City, whoever was going to afford him. It wasn't a case of me going back to Portsmouth to upset Jermain to come here. I hope Jermain can play with [Roman] Pavlyuchenko. The club paid £18m for [Darren] Bent, £15m for Pavlyuchenko and they said they couldn't play together. I couldn't be that stupid surely."

Defoe had acted as his own agent to push through his transfer, as the controversial issue of his representation remains unresolved. He is being sued by his previous agent Sky Andrew for breach of contract, having split with him before he moved to Portsmouth from White Hart Lane last January in a £9m deal. Andrew has alleged that Defoe was illegally represented in that transfer by Mitchell Thomas, the former Tottenham player, who is an unlicensed agent and that Stuart Peters, a licensed agent, was also involved.

Andrew's claim was heard by a three-person arbitration panel in November and they listened to evidence from all of the people involved, including Defoe, over a four-day period. They are still to announce a verdict.

Defoe is as yet unable to hire fresh representation and, consequently, he and his mother Sandra have officially handled his side of the transfer back to Tottenham, as they did the original move to Portsmouth. The south coast club were represented by Pini Zahavi and he liaised with the Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy. Tottenham did not have an agent representing them.

Defoe's transfer to Portsmouth was looked at by the City of London Police and their corruption in football unit. They interviewed Andrew shortly after the deal went through and were unable to say whether Defoe's return would be the subject of similar scrutiny.

Tottenham inserted a sell-on clause when they moved Defoe to Portsmouth, which entitled them to a percentage of any future transfer fee which, with the sums involved, would have amounted to £4m. But Portsmouth negotiated that figure into the final package while the monies that they already owed to Tottenham in instalments on previous transfers were factored in as well.

Pompey were due this month to pay the balance on Defoe's transfer to them, a figure of £4.5m, while they owed £5m on the switch that Younes Kaboul made last summer and £2m on Pedro Mendes' transfer in January 2006. Little money has actually changed hands on the forward's return to White Hart Lane but Portsmouth sources were satisfied that they had made a £6m profit on him in just under 12 months.