Birmingham City hope to finally complete a loan deal for West Ham's Nigel Quashie in the next week.
The 30-year-old has been training with the Blues for several weeks in a bid to prove his fitness after missing the last 19 months through injury.
Boss Alex McLeish is also close to a decision over whether to sign Togo midfielder Souleymane Mamam, 23.
Mamam, who has been on trial at St Andrew's for two weeks, has played in two practice matches.
He was signed by Manchester United in 2003, only to then suffer work permit problems and be sent out on loan to United's 'nursery' club Royal Antwerp.
But they opted not to renew his contract in 2007, since when he has played a further year at Antwerp before going on trial this summer to Mark McGhee's Motherwell.
McLeish will finally make his mind up after seeing Mamam play again in a reserve match next Tuesday. And he expects to decide whether to pursue a deal for the much-travelled Quashie before Blues' next game against Burnley on Saturday week (18 October).
"We would hope to tie Nigel up on a month's deal with a view to extending that if he proves his fitness," McLeish told the Birmingham Mail. "Probably before the Burnley game we will get it done."
Quashie joined West Ham in January 2007 following the fourth of his relegations from the Premier League with West Bromwich Albion (he also went down with QPR, Nottingham Forest and Southampton).
But he has made just seven starts in almost two years at Upton Park, largely down to a nagging foot injury which kept him out all of last season.
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