This article is more than 20 years old

This article is more than 20 years old

The long-anticipated transfer of Emile Heskey between Leicester City and Liverpool could well happen early next week after the Merseyside club increased their bid to £12m.

It is now more than six months since the clubs struck a gentlemen's agreement designed to guarantee the 22-year-old England forward a move to Anfield for £10.75m at the end of the season, and Liverpool have been attempting to bring forward the deal for some time.

Liverpool's manager Gérard Houllier contacted his Leicester counterpart Martin O'Neill this week to increase his offer.

Houllier feared that Heskey's impressive performance against Argentina last week, coupled with Leicester's Worthington Cup success, would precipitate a higher bid from another club or prompt a change of heart by the player.

Since Sunday's Wembley victory O'Neill has - publicly at least - sought to persuade Heskey to extend a contract that has only 18 months left. On Thursday O'Neill offered to make Heskey the highest-paid player in Leicester's history with a weekly £25,000-plus wage.

Liverpool want to bring in Heskey because of doubts over the long-term fitness of their recognised strikers, Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler.

O'Neill said yesterday that he would have talks with Heskey tomorrow after Leicester's home game against Sunderland, hoping to have the striker sign a 12-month extension. "I can't read his mind at the moment," said O'Neill. "It will be up to him at the end of the day."

Meanwhile, Leicester's midfielder Robbie Savage has agreed a new three-year contract and he has secured the Boca Juniors forward Fernando Pasquinelli, 20, on loan.

 After more than four days of at times acrimonious negotiations, Arsenal's former England Under-21 midfielder Stephen Hughes has agreed to move to Everton.

The 22-year-old Hughes will join the Merseyside club in a deal which could ultimately be worth £3m after Arsenal's manager Arsène Wenger informed him that he had no future in north London.

Hughes has yet to sign a four-year Everton contract but he will travel to the north-west today for a medical before completing his transfer on Monday morning. The deal has been held up by a wrangle over personal terms and the manner of payment.

Everton's veteran defender Richard Gough has agreed to sign a new two-year contract which will keep him at Goodison until he is 40.

 The Belgium striker Luc Nilis is due to have a medical at Aston Villa today and discuss terms for a summer move. Nilis, 32, who can leave PSV Eindhoven at the end of the season on a free transfer, is believed to prefer Villa to several other interested British clubs.

 West Ham's defender Neil Ruddock, out of the first team since January, has rejected a proposed loan to Portsmouth as he attempts to reclaim a senior place at Upton Park.

 Three women players have been charged with misconduct after failing random drugs tests, the first to do so since this procedure was introduced into the women's game in 1995. An FA statement read: "Langford player Alison Gordon, 35, tested positive for cannabis and amphetamine. Wembley Mill Hill players Laura Burns, 18, and Karen Hills, 24, tested positive for cannabis." The tests followed their Premier League Southern Division match on January 22.