Sunderland are interested in signing Chris Martin on loan from Derby.
Chris Martin of Derby gets past Alex Baptiste of QPR during the Sky Bet Championship match at the iPro Stadium.
Reading have also shown interest in Martin, whom the Rams have made available for loan following the signing of Cameron Jerome from Norwich City.
Cameron Jerome looks on during the Sky Bet Championship match between Sheffield United and Norwich City.
The 29-year-old is now one of six strikers manager Gary Rowett has available to him at Pride Park, with Darren Bent, David Nugent, Matej Vydra and Sheffield Wednesday loanee Sam Winnall also on the books.
The Black Cats are keen to sign a new forward following the sale of James Vaughan to Wigan Athletic and Lewis Grabban’s return to Bournemouth following his temporary spell at the Stadium of Light.
Currently boss Chris Coleman is relying on youngsters Joel Asoro and Josh Maja upfront, but signing Martin could well be the difference between them staying up or going down.
Chris Coleman, manager of Sunderland, reacts during the Sky Bet Championship match against Reading.
The North East side are bottom of the Championship table at the moment and three points from safety, but in the Scotland international they could land an attacker prolific at this level.
This season aside – in which Martin has scored two goals in 23 appearances, five of which were starts – the Scot has netted 79 times in 254 matches in the second tier of English football at a rate of one every 3.2 games.
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