Republic of Ireland striker David Connolly has finally ended the uncertainty over his future by completing a £500,000 move from West Ham to Leicester City.
The 27-year-old had spent the last few days haggling over personal terms after his London club accepted bids for him from both City and Mick McCarthy's Sunderland, but Micky Adams confirmed yesterday he agreed a deal with the player, who joins on a three-year contract.
"In David we've signed somebody with a proven goalscoring record," said Adams.
"We needed to replace Paul Dickov, which is a hard act to follow. But David averages one goal every two appearances for his league clubs and one in four for his country.
"We are hoping that he scores the goals that will put us in the promotion picture."
Connolly's move has been prompted by West Ham's need to reduce its weekly wage bill in the wake of the club's failed attempt to bounce straight back from relegation to the Premiership.
The Londoners benefited from a parachute payment (from the Premier League) of about £6 million last season and will get the same this year but with wages at Upton Park running at close to twice the first division (now Championship) average of £9 million per year and the additional funds due to run out next summer, further cuts were clearly required if the club was to avoid another financial crisis.
Leicester join a growing list of clubs to have employed Connolly, who has previously done well during spells with Wolves, Watford and Wimbledon.
He joined West Ham from Wimbledon a year ago and enjoyed a great start at the club, scoring eight goals in his first 14 appearances for the Eastenders.
The goals became harder to find as the season wore on, however, and Connolly ended the campaign with 14 in 46 appearances in all competitions.
Meanwhile, another Irish international, Mark Kinsella, is to have a week-long trial at Leeds United in the hope of securing a contract for the coming season with the recently relegated club.
The 33-year-old midfielder played well for West Brom during the latter part of last season but was released after the midlands club secured promotion to the top flight.
His age, however, appears to present no difficulty for Leeds boss Kevin Blackwell, who has already offered Brian Deane (36) a one-year deal and is expected to sign Steve Guppy (35) and Craig Hignett (34) in the next few days.
Michael Reddy, who was released by Sunderland last month, has moved to Grimsby on a two-year deal.
The club's manager, Russell Slade, had actively pursued the one-time Kilkenny City striker during the past few weeks and yesterday described his capture of the 24-year-old as "a major signing for us".
Reddy's pace and raw talent earned him a move to Sunderland within months of his league debut at City but he failed to make anything like the hoped-for progress at Sunderland, for whom he had not actually played a first-team game since September 2000.
Along the way he has had loan spells at Swindon, Hull, Barnsley, York and Sheffield Wednesday (twice) but this latest move should finally present him with the opportunity to play regular first-team football.
Liam Miller, meanwhile, is set to miss Manchester United's 10-day, three-match tour of the United States, which starts today.
The Irish international midfielder, recently signed from Celtic, is not yet fully fit and is set to be left behind by manager Alex Ferguson along with Quinton Fortune and Darren Fletcher.
