Palace exit for City target

Coventry City have once again on Friday been linked with a summer move for veteran midfielder Michael Hughes.

The former Northern Ireland international has been released by Iain Dowie’s former club Crystal Palace, although Eagles boss Peter Taylor has not given up hope of re-signing him.

Taylor said: ‘Michael Hughes has basically been released, but his is slightly different because I’m really saying that something could also develop later on.

‘At the moment, I have to give him the honest answer that we can’t offer him a contract but if all of a sudden something happened in the summer and I lost a midfielder, there is a chance that I could then gain another midfield player.

‘It’s one of the problems of losing the parachute payment and with players out of contract, you then can’t offer them the same terms so that means they are basically a free agent.’