Bargain Bowyer Heads for Basement

Lee Bowyer, for so long the unacceptable face of Leeds United, is expected to bring his occasionally brilliant yet frequently distasteful six-year spell at Elland Road to a close in the next 24 hours when he moves to West Ham, the Premiership's bottom club.

Bowyer was in London for talks yesterday with the club he supported as a boy and, provided there are not hitches of the type that wrecked his projected move to Liverpool last summer, he will take a medical examination today before signing a £30,000-a-week contract, albeit with a get-out clause should West Ham be relegated.

Leeds will receive an undisclosed fee although, given that the £10m-rated midfielder is available on a Bosman free transfer at the end of the season, it is thought to be a fraction of his value, possibly £200,000. However, the club have ensured a legally binding agreement with Bowyer that he repays the £850,000 in legal fees he still owes them following his two court cases.

Bowyer had refused to sign a new contract at Leeds after falling out with the chairman Peter Ridsdale over his comments in a radio interview that he wished he had never signed him. Bowyer spoke to Sunderland, whose manager Howard Wilkinson had bought him for Leeds, before deciding on West Ham.

It has been no secret that the Canning Town-born midfielder was looking for a return to London and, though Leeds will be disappointed to lose one of their most influential players, there was a sense of relief as well with the departure of someone who has besmirched the club's name. As well as the two trials Bowyer has a poor disciplinary record and a hearing to be dealt with by Uefa tomorrow after television pictures caught him stamping on the head of a Malaga player.

"I think most supporters will be happy he's gone. He's had some good times here but bad ones, too - including one of the worst periods in the club's history," Ray Fell, chairman of the Leeds United supporters' club, said last night.

Glenn Roeder, West Ham's manager, asked his board to finance the move after learning Birmingham had failed to tempt Bowyer with a financial package that included a chauffeur-driven car to take him to training. "He's a fantastic player with the best years of his career in front of him," said Roeder.

Olivier Dacourt is expected to follow Bowyer out of Leeds today when he finalises a loan to Roma with a view to a £7m move. Ridsdale flew to Italy yesterday, saying: "Talks are ongoing but I fully expect the deal to be negotiated in the next 24 hours."

Birmingham's manager Steve Bruce has lined up a double signing that will end Michael Duberry's troubled spell at Leeds and take the Tottenham midfielder Stephen Clemence to St Andrews. The Duberry deal would see Stan Lazaridis moving to Leeds with Birmingham also paying £500,000. Clemence, 27, a left-footed player like Lazaridis, has not played in the Premiership this season. A nominal fee is said to be involved.