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SCMP Reporter

BLACKBURN Rovers are to make an audacious bid for Italian ace Attilio Lombardo.

   Manager-elect, Roy Hodgson, has instructed the Lancashire club to make a GBP2.5 million bid to prise Lombardo from Juventus.

   The 30-year-old midfielder heads a shopping list Hodgson has sent Rovers pending his arrival in the summer.

  Blackburn have also been told by defender Colin Hendry that he is prepared to wait for an operation on his groin strain until they are sure of Premier League survival.

  Relegation-threatened Sunderland received a surprise boost with the news that key striker Niall Quinn is set to make a return to the side by the end of the month.

  The towering Republic of Ireland star was not expected to play again this season after an operation on damaged cruciate knee ligaments last September.

  Quinn said: 'It's been hard work and it's been a long time since I've trained as hard as this.

  'The surgeon has said I could play again before the end of March.' Manchester City 'keeper Andy Dibble has joined Glasgow Rangers on loan until the end of the season.

  The 31-year-old Dibble is currently third-choice keeper at First Division City, and is moving to the Scottish Premier Division leaders in a bid for first-team football.

  Last season, Dibble was replaced by German 'keeper Eike Immel. After fighting his way back into the side he gave way again to fellow Welshman Martin Margetson, then briefly regained the number one shirt before the arrival of Northern Ireland's Tommy Wright last month displaced him once more. Italian striker Giuseppe Signori has ruled out a move to the Premier League, saying he will stay with Serie A side Lazio until he retires in the year 2000.

  The Lazio skipper, making a brief visit to Milan, said: 'I'll retire in 2000, when I'll be 32, but I want to win the league championship with Lazio first.'   Signori has been Serie A's top goalscorer in three of the last four seasons and was expected to join the exodus of Italian talent to the Premier League after being linked with Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle.

  But he revealed: 'I've definitely dropped the idea of playing in England.'   Former England midfielder David Rocastle has returned to Premier League Chelsea after a two-month loan spell at First Division Norwich.

  The 29-year-old former Arsenal, Leeds United and Manchester City player was unable to agree personal terms for a permanent move to Carrow Road.

    Newcastle boss Kenny Dalglish is playing down reports of a training ground bust-up with David Ginola. The unsettled French winger confronted Dalglish during training at the club's Maiden Castle training ground, according to an eyewitness quoted in the tabloid Daily Star.

   The report claimed that during a meeting when the players were sitting listening to Dalglish and his assistant Terry McDermott, Ginola stood up and started shouting at Dalglish and pointing his finger at him.

  But Dalglish attempted to smooth over the incident and Ginola joined his team-mates in training as if nothing had happened.

  Dalglish said: 'The players sat on the grass and we had a meeting.

  'He [Ginola] was one of the players that was spoken to but we're not going to disclose what's involved in discussions between myself and players.

  'I've not argued with anyone publicly,' insisted Dalglish.

   'It takes two people to have an argument.'   When asked if there would be any repercussions for Ginola as a result of the incident Dalglish snapped: 'Don't ask me to justify what's in the papers. I've told you what we want to say and that's the finish.

  'At the end of the day we open facilities up here for people to come in and watch us train.

  'Someone that's come in and watched has chosen to make a few quid out of something he thought was a story.

  'If someone's stupid enough to pay him that's up to them.

  'It certainly won't affect our attitude. We'll still let people come in and watch training if they want to.'   Ginola has hinted strongly that he may quit Newcastle in the summer and has been linked with a string of leading clubs on the Continent including his former club Paris Saint-Germain, Marseille, Inter Milan and Barcelona.

   The Frenchman was a GBP2.5 million signing made by former Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan and the 30-year-old winger has voiced fears that Dalglish does not have the same appreciation of his talents.



Rovers set to target Lombardo