Newcastle United chief Joe Kinnear is serious about taking Phil Bardsley off Sunderland's hands.
The People says the word from the defender's camp is that the Magpies have made "tentative inquiries" for Bardsley.
And Kinnear is not put off by the 28-year-old's bad-boy image, after he was pictured lying on a casino floor covered in £50 notes.
But if the Toon's director of football does decide to add Bardsley to the Geordies' rather threadbare squad - they are the only Premier League side not to have signed a first- team player in the close season - he will find competition from both Fulham and Blackburn.
