Blackpool manager Michael Appleton has played down reports linking the £5 million-rated Championship hitman Jerry Yates with a potential January move to Rangers or West Brom, speaking to The Gazette.
With no Aleksandr Mitrovic to bang in the goals at a hitherto unseen rate, the Championship’s Golden Boot race looks wide open this season.
Yates, with nine to his name, has just one less than current pacesetter Viktor Gyokeres, despite spending much of the current campaign out on the left-wing. Whether he is still in contention for the Golden Boot come May, however, depends largely on what happens in January.
The former Swindon Town ace has played some of the best football of his entire career this season; The Sun’s Alan Nixon reporting that Rangers could launch a £2 million bid in the New Year.
Carlos Corberan’s in-form West Brom are another who have sent scouts to watch Yates in action too. The hard-working 26-year-old also has Premier League suitors in the shape of Brentford and AFC Bournemouth.
But, until that interest turns into something more serious, speculation will remain exactly that as far as Blackpool boss Appleton is concerned. Speculation.
Premier League and Scottish clubs like Blackpool striker Jerry Yates
“It’s absolutely news to me,” Appleton says.
“I’ve not had one conversation regarding Jerry and going elsewhere with anybody. So I can’t give you anything on that one. As I say, it’s absolutely news to me. I’ve not had one conversation on the matter.”
Rangers, during the first outing of the Mick Beale era, defeated Hibernian 3-2 in a topsy-turvy clash after returning from the World Cup break last week. Alfredo Morelos ended his barren run with a welcome winner in the second-ahlf. Beale also has Scotland’s most feared hitman at his disposal in Antonio Colak.
Yates flexibility and ease in a front-two could appeal to the new Gers boss, however. Beale, after returning to Ibrox recently, admitted that he plans to utilise something of an old-school strike partnership in an attempt to add more thrust and threat to his side.
“I want to play with two strikers at times,” Beale said, via MSN. “You should expect that in the coming games, that we play with two strikers. That’s a hint about what’s coming.
“I want more strikers on the pitch. More goalscorers.”
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