By Mark Heys
July 17 2005

Sam Allardyce hopes to add three new players to his squad next week and two Italian based internationals are at the top of his wish-list. Allardyce, who has cast his eye over Andy Van Der Meyde of Inter Milan and Lazio's Ousmane Dabo, hopes that the two deals can be concluded from Bolton's base in the Far-East.

The move for Dutch international Van Der Meyde and French ace Dabo are a highlight of the Wanderers ambition for the coming season, and with money to spend Allardyce hopes that he can further improve his squad, which has had it's fair share of doubters since returning to the top flight in 2001.

Dabo has only one year left on his current contract and Van Der Meyde saw a recent move to Monaco fall through at the last moment, so both are likely to take the prospect of playing in England very seriously given that they seem to be out of favour with their current teams.

A bid of £2.2 million has already been talked about for Van Der Meyde, if successful this will be the most that Sam Allardyce has shelled out for a player since returning to the club as manager six years ago.