The 26-year-old Gillingham forward is League One’s current top scorer with 13 goals.
As the January transfer window draws ever closer, two Premier League clubs have been urged to sign forward players in the past few weeks.
With just 12 goals in the league this season (BBC Sport), 15th-placed Newcastle United are the second-lowest scorers in the division, with just 10-goal Huddersfield Town having notched up fewer.
Chronicle Live columnist John Gibson wrote an article last month urging the Magpies to “get serious about strikers” in January, testament to opinion of their current attacking issues.
Meanwhile, Everton are further up the table (seventh) and have a decent enough 21 league goals so far.
However, with Richarlison not much of a lone striker and Cenk Tosun out of favour, they too have been pointed in the direction of new recruits up front (Liverpool Echo).
The first assumption is that both may choose to seek out a multi-million pound marquee name from overseas, or a household Premier League name with a lengthy injury record (Danny Welbeck perhaps?).
However, in the vein of Leicester taking a gamble in the shape of Jamie Vardy and striking gold, perhaps both clubs should do the same and look a little lower down the English pyramid.
Enter Tom Eaves, a 26-year-old, 6ft 3in striker currently playing for League One outfit Gillingham and topping the division’s goalscoring charts with 13 goals from 21 games.
A classic number 9 target man, Eaves came through the famed Crewe academy and has Premier League club experience from being on Bolton’s books from 2010 to 2016 (Transfermarkt).
A highlight reel of the forward’s 2017/18 goals from the official Gillingham YouTube channel shows a superb header of the ball, a clinical finisher from close range and a powerful shooter from further out.
So why Newcastle and Everton? Well, aside from being a prolific number 9, the kind of which both clubs seem to need, Eaves has been compared to Andy Carroll, who many Magpies fans remember fondly, and hails from Merseyside, so he wouldn’t need to acclimatise or risk homesickness if he joins the Toffees.
Valued at just £100,000 (Transfermarkt), contracted only until the end of the season and playing for a club currently 16th in League One, it may not prove too difficult to prise Eaves away from Priestfield.
It would represent a pretty low-risk gamble for the two top-tier clubs and an incredible opportunity for the player to test himself at the top level.
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