PAUL Warhurst was to set to complete his £1.25 million move from Blackburn Rovers to newly-promoted Crystal Palace today as the pruning of the over-sized Ewood staff continues.

Utility man Warhurst will follow Matty Holmes and Niklas Gudmundsson out of Ewood and there could yet be more players looking for the exit door as new boss Roy Hodgson has inherited a top-heavy squad.

Warhurst, who is expected to play a striking role for Palace, travelled to Selhurst Park in London yesterday for the usual medicals.

He is expected to seal the move fairly quickly with Palace manager Steve Coppell back today from a short break.

Rovers have taken a substantial drop on the £2,650,000 that Warhurst cost them from Sheffield Wednesday but the move looks to be in the best interests of both player and club.

Two broken legs and a series of other injuries have been a serious handicap to his chances of establishing himself in the first team at Ewood and he has never shown the sort of form he displayed at Wednesday.

He wasn't able to repeat a remarkable scoring run which included helping to knock Rovers out of the Coca-Cola Cup at the semi-finals stage.

Warhurst looks set to link up with Italian star Attilio Lombardo, who is also expected to join Palace after they sold David Hopkin to Leeds. Rovers accepted they would also lose money on both Holmes, who has joined Charlton Athletic, and Gudmundsson, who stayed behind in Sweden when the rest of the squad returned.

But there was little point for either party in the present situation continuing.

It's unlikely, in fact, that any of the trio would have figured in the first team reckoning, especially with the new players who have come in.

Gudmundsson is to relaunch his career with Malmo, with Rovers having accepted fees of around £300,000 apiece for him and Holmes, who was also wanted by Luton.

Between them, the three players started less than 40 Premiership games for Rovers. Warhurst notched up 30 League starts, plus 27 more appearances as a substitute, scoring four goals. Holmes made eight full League appearances, plus one as sub, scoring one goal, and Gudmundsson started only one Premiership match, making five more appearances as a sub. The Swede didn't score at first team level.

As well as trimming the wage bill, Rovers will also be conscious of making room for some of their up-and-coming young players to progress.

There is still the possibility, of course, of other players being signed.

Meanwhile, Southampton striker Egil Ostenstad, looked at by Rovers earlier this year as a possible transfer target, has been interesting Newcastle United - presumably to replace Les Ferdinand.

But Saints, with a new manager, David Jones, in place are adamant they are not selling.

And, if they were, they say they would be talking in terms of a £7-10 million price tag!

That will be enough to frighten off any would-be purchasers. Swiss international midfielder Ciriaco Sforza, a player under Roy Hodgson at Inter Milan, has turned his back on the Premiership.

Rovers had Sforza pencilled in as a "possible" target - among a number of others - at the end of last season but didn't take it any further.

In the last few days, Everton's new boss Howard Kendall tried to lure him to Goodison but the midfielder has opted for Kaiserslautern instead.

And Argentinian striker Gabriel Batistuta, the subject of Rovers interest this summer, ended speculation of a transfer from Fiorentina when he rejoined the team for pre-season training yesterday. He said: "There were a few problems with people in the club, but I'm fine now."

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