Crouch for Sunderland

LONDON – England striker Peter Crouch is set to quit Portsmouth for fellow premiership side Sunderland, UK media reports said yesterday.

It is believed the Black Cats have agreed a fee of around £12 million (16 million euros) with Pompey for the striker after secretive negotiations since the end of the season.Sunderland manager Bruce said: ‘He is a player I have admired for a very long time and I suppose a lot of managers would do exactly the same thing,’The discussions have been going on now for a few weeks,’ he added.’We hope we can try to put something together because he would be the type of player of course that would signal our intention of the way we want to take the football club forward.’Meanwhile, striker Bobby Zamora is likely to join Hull from Fulham in a £5 million deal, the west London club said yesterday.Details of the transfer of the 28-year-old will become known when Fulham return from their pre-season Australian tour.Zamora scored just two goals last season after his 4.8 million pound (six million euro) move from West Ham but his partnership with Andy Johnson was still largely deemed a success.The former England under-21 international was seen as a teenage sensation when he made his mark at Brighton between 1999-2002. Later he played for Tottenham before moving to West Ham, where he scored 30 goals in four and a half seasons. – Nampa-AFP