MARSEILLE are playing for time before following up their initial interest in Blackburn Rovers' former French under-21 star Sebastien Perez.

And there are suggestions in France that the delay on Marseille's part might be aimed at trying to secure a cut-price deal for Perez, who is anxious to return home for family reasons.

Ewood chief executive John Williams, however, has not ruled out a serious bid from the French giants to repatriate the Frenchman.

Perez returned to Rovers' injury-hit side in the FA Cup victory over Charlton last Saturday.

But, even though manager Brian Kidd is not particularly looking to sell any members of his depleted squad at the moment, the club have made it clear they will listen to reasonable offers for the former Bastia man.

Marseille were expected to come back in this week with a concrete offer, after contact had been made between the clubs by a third party.

French contacts told me: "Marseille do have a big squad at the moment and maybe they cannot pay the kind of money being talked about, which is going on for 30 million francs (£3 million).

"But they were very interested when Blackburn signed him from Bastia in summer and know that he would like to come back to France.

"There is still time for them to act before the deadline which is later this month." Paris St Germain were also believed to be interested but they have made other signings since then and are strong on the right-hand side.

As we reported before Christmas, Liverpool's French boss Gerard Houllier could also be interested in Perez.

But the player's preference to return to France would apparently rule out any Anfield move.

Meanwhile, Henning Berg and David May are both back in the reckoning but facing strong competition for a place in Manchester United's side.

And that has sparked off more rumours that manager Brian Kidd might return to Old Trafford in a bid to sign one of the two defenders.

But I understand that there are no Ewood plans for such a move - for either player - even though Berg is frustrated at his lack of regular games.

Bolton Wanderers have taken over the contract of versatile youngster Luke Staton until the end of the season, with a view to a permanent move. Berg made only his eighth start of the season in United's 3-1 FA Cup win over Middlesbrough on Sunday and he and May are vying with the likes of Jaap Stam, Ronny Johnsen, Denis Irwin and the Neville brothers for starting places in the backline, while this season has also seen Wes Brown graduate to the senior squad.

"It's definitely frustrating when you're not playing because all I want to do is play football. When you aren't playing obviously you are not happy," said Berg.

"Squad rotation can be frustrating at times because everybody wants to play every week, but with the number of players here at United somebody has got to be disappointed all the time."

Bolton Wanderers have taken over the contract of versatile youngster Luke Staton until the end of the season, with a view to a permanent move.

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