CITY are locked in a two-way battle for former crowd favourite Shaun Wright-Phillips.

The Blues are scrapping with Everton for the services of the Chelsea winger, who is not in Luiz Felipe Scolari's plans.

Sources in London and Merseyside have confirmed that Chelsea were willing to let the 26-year-old leave either on a season-long loan or a permanent deal.

And the early Premier League leaders have indicated that the choice of destination would be left to the player who is desperate to play regular first team football and resurrect his England career.

City fans have been desperate to welcome home their Academy product who left them for Chelsea for £21million back in 2005. Some even launched an emotional petition begging that the Blues bring back the player who made 153 starts for the Blues and has amassed 81 matches at Stamford Bridge.

Former boss Sven-Goran Eriksson made an enquiry last season but it was turned down but now Mark Hughes, an ardent admirer of the player, is ready to give it another go.

On Monday night an unofficial Everton website was claiming that a medical had been done and Wright-Phillips was on the verge of joining the Merseyside club though there was no official confirmation.

Deadline

Hughes admitted at the weekend that he is racing the clock in his bid to bring in more new faces before next Monday's transfer deadline.

The Blues boss would ideally like to make a couple of signings to add to Jo, Tal Ben Haim and Vincent Kompany before the window closes on new business until the New Year.

But he is only too well aware that a handful of fellow Premier League sides are all still chasing the same ever-diminishing pool of top level strikers and right sided midfielders and is adamant that he will not make the plunge just for the sake of it.

"If we can find players of the right quality and who will add to what we have here already then we will see what is out there," declared the manager who has been searching for a hitman and a right winger.

"It is not a case of just bringing bodies in. They have to be of the right quality and players who can move us forward.

"The sale of Rolando Bianchi and the possible move of Nery Castillo mean that there is the opportunity and the means to bring people in and we will be investigating the possibility."

Following Sunday's 3-0 win over West Ham in which virtually every attacking player did his cause some good, Hughes is possibly under less pressure to find fresh talent.

Record signing Jo will return for Thursday's Uefa Cup tie in Denmark and Darius Vassell and Benjani will be back in action long before the next window.

If the City chief does splash the cash then it is likely it could be on either Honduran international David Suazo at Inter Milan or Real Zaragoza's 29-year-old Argentinian Diego Milito who have both been consistently linked with a move to the Premier League even though Milito seems reluctant to leave Spain.

Fluminense's attacking midfielder Thiago Neves is another player being touted for a move to England.

Would you like to see SWP back at Eastlands? Have your say.