Blackburn Rovers striker Roque Santa Cruz wants to join Mark Hughes' Manchester City in January, it has been revealed.

The Guardian says Santa Cruz is keen to leave Blackburn Rovers and accept Manchester City's offer to sign for them in the January transfer window.

Santa Cruz has become restless at Blackburn during a slump that has seen them drop into the relegation places, and the Paraguay international striker has told people involved in the deal that he wants to link up again with Hughes, the man who brought him into English football.

The matter is complicated because of Hughes's past connections with Santa Cruz's employers and the suspicion at City that Blackburn are reluctant to do business with them because, as City's executive chairman Garry Cook put it earlier this season: "We have already taken their manager and backroom staff off them."