Reading, who are still seven points off Championship leaders Wolves, host Watford this Friday night. See all the latest BestPrice betting here.

Mark Hughes has confirmed that Manchester City have seen a ‘substantial’ bid for Roque Santa Cruz turned down by Blackburn.

Hughes, who worked with Santa Cruz during his time in charge at Ewood Park, remains hopeful that an agreement can be reached.

“We have made an improved bid, a substantial bid, and it was rejected,” said Hughes.

“We still want to bring Roque Santa Cruz to the club if we can, but he’s still Blackburn’s player and at the moment they don’t want to deal at the level we are at.

“We will make any future decisions in regards to their response.

“We bid £12million in the summer and it (the latest offer) was significantly higher than that.

“We will now have to wait and see.”

Hughes also confirmed making formal approaches for West Ham duo Scott Parker and Craig Bellamy since the transfer window opened, but revealed that those deals have put been on hold.

“We made an initial enquiry (for Parker) and I think it’s well documented that we made an enquiry about Craig Bellamy as well,” he said.

“We made a double bid which was rejected and we haven’t got back to the table on that one.”

Reading, who are still seven points off Championship leaders Wolves, host Watford this Friday night. See all the latest BestPrice betting here.