Liverpool striker Andy Carroll is odds-on to return to former club Newcastle before the end of the summer transfer window.
Carroll, who left Newcastle to join Liverpool in January 2011 for a club record £35milion, has been linked with a number of clubs in recent days after it emerged new Reds boss Brendan Rodgers is ready to offload him this summer.
The 23-year-old is understood to have privately conceded he favours a move back to Tyneside, and Magpies boss Alan Pardew on Tuesday confirmed talks with Liverpool are ongoing.
Newcastle failed with an initial bid for the target man at the weekend but are expected to return with an improved offer.
And bookmakers William Hill on Tuesday afternoon reacted by making Carroll just 8/13 to leave Anfield this summer, and just 8/11 to return to St James' Park.
Hill's spokesman Joe Crilly told Crunchsports.com: "Newcastle appear ready to break their transfer record to get the man that they sold just 18 months ago and it is starting to look more and more likely that Andy Carroll is on his way."
Pardew had earlier told the Evening Chronicle of a deal possibly going through: "It will be what it will be. That whole process is a little bit more involved with the chairman and the board at Liverpool.
"We've got a great team here, a great squad, and if Andy Carroll comes it'll only add to us."
Newcastle are believed to have offered Liverpool £13m for the England international, with Liverpool understood to want at least £20m. But it is believed a compromise can still be reached.
"It's simple, really. Sometimes transfers are done at corporate level. I'm slightly detached from that," Pardew added.
"It's been said that he's available, and if we're involved then we'll be involved because of the figures, not anything else, because we know he's good enough. I'm slightly detached from it."