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TAL Ben-Haim is poised to become a City player by the middle of the week.

The 26-year-old Israeli international is expected to become the Blues' second signing of the summer once personal terms have been thrashed out.

It is understood a fee of around £5m has been agreed with Chelsea and the player has been offered in the region of £60,000 per week.

Ben-Haim, who shot to prominence in this country thanks to a successful stint at Bolton , has yet to agree to fit into City's wage structure but those close to him in London believe he is ready to sign a four-year deal that will put the heat on the current defenders at the cub.

It is inconceivable that manager Mark Hughes would pay so much for a player and not play him which puts the spotlight on Micah Richards and Richard Dunne, who has just signed a new contract.

Suspension

Captain Dunne will, of course, miss the opening two matches of the Premier League season through suspension leaving Ben-Haim to possibly make his debut at Villa.

Like England star Richards, the Israeli can also play at right-back which in turn would leave Vedran Corluka and Nedum Onuoha battling hard for a place in the team.

Capped 39 times by his country Ben-Haim played almost 150 times for Maccabi Tel Aviv before the then Bolton manager Sam Allardyce brought him to England and the Premier League in 2004.

He became one of Bolton's most durable and reliable performers, clocking up 88 starts in three years before he moved south.

His chances at Chelsea have been limited thanks to the form of John Terry and Carvalho and he made just 13 starts. He is set to become the second Israeli to play for City following in the footsteps of Eyal Berkovic.

What do you think of the deal? Have your say.

FROM MEN

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/manchester_city/s/1060010_city_set_for_5m_ben_haim_move



Completely gutted about this. Its way too much money for a very average player Chelsea got on a free a year ago and never player. £60k a week

I under stand we need cover in defence but we need a right winger left back and holding midfiled player much more than a centre half.

[color="Red"]MEanwhile SWP goes to Pompey for a bargain £11 million[/color]. Things seem to be going very wrong with our transfer policy at the moment. £23 million and £120k a week plus for 2 playes in Jo and Ben HAim. Absolutely gutted.

That's not a done deal yet is it?

HEs not worth anything like £5milion and £60k a week. GOing to cause big plroblems with the younger players in the squad (Hart, Johnson etc)

All I will say is that they better sign the players we actiually need and quality ones at that as I am not at all happy with what we have brought in so far or the money thats been spent in the process.

60k a week is fucked

I'm all for it to be honest. Don't actually know where he's gonna fit in but we certainly need him for the start of the season while Dunne is suspended.

Conker.

Hughes needs to build a squad, give us some depth. Fully fit we've got a half decent staring 11 other than the lack of a right winger and question marks at LB, but once we start picking up injuries and suspensions we look very fragile.

Exactly. With TBH and (hopefully) Taiwo we've got some good competition at the back.

PS. What's Conker mean?!

Concur.