Stoke City are willing to let Lee Gregory move on before Friday’s transfer deadline with Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough interested, according to TEAMtalk.
Garry Monk might not be everyone’s cup of tea but even the most hard-nosed Leeds fan would struggle to play down the impact he made on Chris Wood’s Elland Road career.
Wood scored a respectable 13 Championship goals for the Whites in 2015/16. But with Monk at the helm, the New Zealand international doubled that tally in spectacular style, lifting the Golden Boot before securing a big-money move to Burnley.
Wood is not the only striker to became nigh-on unstoppable under Monk either.
And if Gregory does return to his Steel City homeland before tomorrow’s deadline, he will hope to follow in the footsteps of Steven Fletcher, Wilfried Bony and co at Hillsborough.
TEAMtalk claims 32-year-old Gregory, a Sheffield-born forward who started his career at Wednesday’s bitter rivals United, is a target not just for relegation-threatened Owls but also Neil Warnock’s Middlesbrough.
A speedy striker who honed his predatory instincts in non-league before being snapped up by Millwall in what Ian Holloway called “the best £250,000 I’ve ever spent”, Gregory is hardly prolific at Championship level but his pace and work rate has earned him plenty of admirers.
The late-blooming hitman is at his best in a front two alongside an old-fashioned targetman, running on to flick-ons with his turbo-charged acceleration.
It’s tempting to wonder if he could forge a partnership with an Atdhe Nuhiu or an Ashley Fletcher at Wednesday or Boro.
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