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Midfielder move
Wigan Athletic, 15:06, July 23, 2008 ,
Middlesbrough midfielder Lee Cattermole looks to be a step closer to leaving the club as Wigan have made a £3.5m bid.
Cattermole was left out of the side that drew 1-1 with Celtic last night in Portugal to ensure he was fit enough to make a move if an offer came in this week that was acceptable.
Wigan have been linked with the Stockton-born player before but their initial offer of £2.5m was rejected by boss Gareth Southgate who will be looking to pick up as much as £4m for the player if he can. The Latics have come back in with an improved offer of £3.5m and a deal for the player looks to be on the cards.
Southgate told the Gazette: "Something could happen in the next 24 hours. It's not a deal that's been agreed, but they have put a revised bid in and it's pretty close to what we're looking for, so we felt from everybody's point of view it was best if he didn't play.
"But he's still our player and he stays with us on this trip, he'll stay with us as long as he's our player.
"If a deal's agreed we'll have to take a view on that, but at the moment we haven't actually agreed anything.
"Quite a bit happened yesterday afternoon with it, so I didn't feel it would be right for him to be going into the game.
"We've had a revised offer from Wigan and we feel that he wasn't in the right frame of mind to play. It's not a done deal, but it's given us something to consider.
"Lee was aware of it so we thought for all parties it was better for him not to play."