Roy Hodgson keen to land Damien Duff

Fulham boss Roy Hodgson is closing in on a £4 million deal for Newcastle winger Damien Duff. Hodgson is confident that Duff will join the exodus out of St. James’ Park. “He is a player that interests us, the The clubs are talking and I hope the deal goes through,” said Hodgson.

The 30-year-old Ireland international scored his sixth goal for the Magpies in a 1-1 draw at West Brom Albion last weekend. He has been on Tyneside since joining from Chelsea for £5 million in 2006.

Before playing for Chelsea Duff rose through the ranks at Blackburn Rovers, under Hodgson. “Damien and I go back a long way from when we worked together at Blackburn,“ said Hodgson before adding, "He wants to come back to west London.”

“Damien had injury problems at Chelsea and has done well at Newcastle given the turmoil there.

"Every time he’s played for Ireland he’s consistently been one of their best performers…We know what we’d be getting with Damien - he’s an experienced and quality player.”

Duff has featured for Ireland 75 times scoring on seven goals.

The Whites gaffer is content with the current state of his squad despite only bringing in two players this summer, Stephen Kelly and Bjorn Helge Riise. The former Inter Milan manager said, “The squad as it is is strong enough. If no business happens it won’t be the end of the world.”

Fulham start their Premier League campaign on Saturday away to Portsmouth, Hodgson insists that survival is his team’s primary objective. “Success this season would be to finish in a similar place to last season, but that won’t be easy,” he said. “The league is so difficult to stay in that clubs like us have to have a clear bottom line objective, and that’s to still be in the Premier League next season.”