Dan Petrescu could be on his way to Southampton six months after snubbing them for Bradford City.

The Romanian international, one of the three star names to be told they have no future at Valley Parade, missed training today to travel south for talks at The Dell.

And boss Jim Jefferies confirmed: "We are hopeful the deal will go through."

If a deal happened, it would mean a reunion with Glenn Hoddle who signed Petrescu in 1995 for Chelsea, where he spent his five most successful years in the Premiership.

Hoddle hoped to take him to the south coast last summer after then Chelsea boss Gianluca Vialli made it clear Petrescu would no longer feature at Stamford Bridge.

But while Southampton dithered over his wage demands, City pounced with a £1 million deal that was sewn up within 30 hours.

Petrescu turned down a loan move to Preston on Tuesday saying that he wanted to stay and fight for his place with the Bantams - even if they went down - because his family were settled in the Leeds area.

But the lure of staying in the Premiership and linking up once again with his former mentor Hoddle could prove irresistible.

Petrescu, 33 last month, has had a hit-and-miss spell with City. He started 16 Premiership games and scored once with a late equaliser at West Ham in September.

But he has failed to impress Jefferies who does not see him fitting in to the strict work ethic the team must produce to have any chance of escaping the drop.

Petrescu has been picked for only three of Jefferies' eight games in charge and was taken off early in all of them. He played 42 minutes as a substitute on Monday after Billy McKinlay was injured.

Meanwhile, Jefferies has scotched suggestions that Ashley Ward will be part of the Bantams exodus.

Ward, without a Premiership goal for City, was the only outfield substitute not used against Middlesbrough.

But Jefferies urged fans not to read anything sinister into the striker's lack of involvement.

And while Isaiah Rankin has been linked to a possible £400,000 move to Bristol Rovers, Jefferies assured Ward he still has a job to do.

He said: "I'm not in a rush to push Ashley out the door or anything like that. I've only spoken to the three players, Collymore, Carbone and Petrescu, about their future at the club. Anything else is speculation.

"Ashley is a hard-working centre-forward, strong in the air with good presence, who I can see fitting into the squad I'm trying to build.

"He was a bit unlucky not to play against Middlesbrough but that was because I wanted to go with a couple of smaller men up front against their big defenders. It worked well at Leicester when I used Dean Saunders and Robbie Blake together.

"But Ashley is in the squad for the Manchester United game and he's got a chance of playing."

City are likely to wait until the summer to pursue their interest in Hearts wing-back Gary Locke.