Michael single 'will miss top 10'

George Michael's video mocks the Blairs

George Michael's controversial single Shoot The Dog risks being his biggest flop for a decade, according to early sales indications.

The record is believed to have sold less than 5,000 copies on its first day on sale in UK record shops on Monday, according to reports - which means he could miss out on a top 10 place.

Shoot The Dog, which criticises US foreign policy and has a video mocking Tony Blair and George Bush, has struggled to pick up radio airplay in recent weeks.

If the record fails to make the top ten, this will be the first time this has happened since his 1991 single Cowboys and Angels.

George Michael is expected to release an album this year

His last single Freeek made number seven earlier this year.

Michael has received vicious criticism in the US for his single, with the New York Post calling him a "past-his-prime pop pervert" - referring to his conviction for lewd conduct in a Los Angeles toilet in 1998.

But chart analyst Genarro Castaldo, of the HMV retail chain, cast doubt on whether the single would be as big a flop as some have predicted, adding he thought the single would still enter the top ten.

He said it would be a bad idea to read too much into the chart placing of Shoot The Dog.

"It'll still be a reasonable performance for someone who really is more of an albums artist," he told BBC News Online.

"We're expecting a new album from him in the autumn, and that will be the bigger test of his popularity, you can't tell that from singles."

Midweek sales figures are no longer released by record companies or retailers, after the British Phonographic Industry trade body decided to crack down on the widespread early leaking of chart positions earlier this year.

Darius Danesh, who rose to fame in TV talent shows Pop Idol and Popstars, is widely expected to be number one on Sunday with his single Colourblind.