Forest And Derby In Fight For Barker?

Blackpool defender Shaun Barker is supposedly at the centre of a tug of war for his services, with both Forest and arch rivals Derby County vieing for his signature.

The 26 year old defender has been linked with a move to the City Ground since the end of the season and is a local lad from Trowell. He's a Forest fan as well.

Barker would be a decent signing. He's had two years Championship experience with the Seasiders and has the versatility to play at either right back or centre half. He's their on field captain and would be sorely missed by them if he left.

There's two sides to the Barker rumour though and it all depends on which one you believe. One side says we've matched the £600,000 bid from the Sheep Shaggers, but gone one step better and put the cash on the table. Blackpool have apparently accepted the bids and it's up to the player to decide. If that's true, then it's a no brainer for the lad and he's a Red. Just a case of Billy giving him the pen and getting him to change the colour of his hair, for the photo waving the scarf.

The other side of the story, is that it's all a Baldrick style cunning plan, to get Donny Chairman John Ryan all twitchy about missing out on all that cash for Matthew Mills. It's hoped that when he sees us bidding for Barker, he'll be on the phone rather sharpish, to complete the deal for Mills. We could of course be in for both, in which case, it's happy days.

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