BLACKBURN Rovers could face a tug-of-war with Italian side Torino for the signature of Patrick Valery.

Rovers are believed to have offered Valery a one year contract following transfer discussions at Ewood Park last week.

But Torino have emerged as the main rivals for the signature of the 27-year-old French defender.

Valery is currently out of contract with French club Bastia but an Italian source told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph: "Valery will definitely be moving and it looks like Blackburn are the clear favourites.

"The contract is not as long as Patrick would have liked but it would not be premature of me to say that his first choice is Blackburn.

"His agent says a deal of £1.5 million has been agreed with Blackburn and he says his player will be on £30,000 a month."

The tough-tackling defender began his career with Monaco in 1988 and played under Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

Meanwhile, Wales defender Chris Coleman is ready to step up his training schedule as the start of pre-season training draws closer.

Coleman has been sidelined for several months after rupturing his Achilles tendon.

But caretaker manager Tony Parkes revealed that Coleman could be ready to return to action by October.

Parkes said: "Chris is doing a bit of running now and he is making genuine progress.

"He has sacrificed his summer break and is working extremely hard.

"He sustained a big injury and we are certainly not going to rush Chris back. He will not be starting the season but he will be very close in October.

"As long as he has no setbacks that is the sort of date we are looking at.

"His rehabilitation is at a positive stage and Chris can definitely see a little bit more light at the end of the tunnel."

The Sunday Mirror clearly had not read Saturday's Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

They claimed yesterday that Colin Hendry was on his way to Newcastle in an 'exclusive'.

That came 24 hours after Hendry had told us that he was staying at Ewood Park.

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