Busy day at the office for Bruce

Last updated : 23 January 2009 By Michael Goodman

Friday the 23rd of January has been exceptionally busy for boss Steve Bruce in terms of transfer activity. This morning, the club reportedly had a £5m bid accepted for Reading winger Stephen Hunt who should now travel up to the JJB to discuss personal terms and undergo a medical.

Hunt will probably fill in on the left hand side of midfield to add a natural left footed player to a previously unbalanced left side with Jason Koumas, Olivier Kapo, Wilson Palacios, Kevin Kilbane and Ryan Taylor all featuring on the left wing at some point in the past two years.

Steve Bruce then accepted a bid from Aston Villa this morning of £3.5m for Emile Heskey who has now completed his move down to Birmingham this evening and should make his league debut against Wigan in a weeks time.

Heskey has consistently been linked with a move away from the club since the start of the season and almost joined Tottenham in the summer but a move failed to materialise. Heskey has penned a three-and-a half year deal with Villa with Wigan not wanting the England striker to leave for free in the summer.

With Heskey heading down to Birmingham, Bruce moved quickly to bring in Mido from Middlesbrough on a season long loan which was expected to be completed today. Speaking to the official club website, Bruce spoke of his delight to sign Mido.

"Mido brings vast experience to the table. He has a good Premier League pedigree having scored goals at Tottenham and Middlesbrough, and he has also played for some huge European clubs, where he gained Champions League and UEFA Cup experience.'' Bruce said.

"He is still a relatively young man with potentially his best years ahead of him and hopefully he can produce a bit of magic for us during the rest of the season."

Mido spoke to the website as well and spoke about wanting to show the Wigan public what he is all about.

Mido said: "Wigan are a club moving in the right direction, who play great football and their league position is no fluke. I'm really looking forwards to teaming up with some excellent players.

"When a man like Steve Bruce, who has achieved so much in the game, says he wants you, you have to take up opportunities like that.

"My focus now is entirely on making sure we reach safety and then progress as far as we can this season.

"I'm also really pleased to be teaming up with Zaki. He is a top player and a good friend and it always helps when there are familiar faces when you join a new club. Now I just want to show the Wigan public what I am all about and play football."

In what could be the last deal of the day for the club, Ben Watson has apparently chosen to join the Wigan in a reported £2m deal. The centre midfielder will join from Crystal Palace and will know Emmerson Boyce from his time at Selhurst Park.

Watson is seen by Bruce as a replacement for Wilson Palacios and should go straight into the side to face Liverpool on Wednesday night once confirmation of the deal is complete. The former England U21 midfielder is highly regarded by Palace and was voted the clubs young player of the year in 2007 and has rejected a move to Middlesbrough in order to join Wigan.

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