Daryl Murphy spent five years at League One giants Sunderland but could he return with Championship outfit Nottingham Forest letting him go?
Replacing Josh Maja has proved to be easier said than done for Sunderland.
£4 million Will Grigg has hardly looked like the prolific centre-forward they needed since his January arrival from Wigan Athletic while Charlie Wyke, another big-money signing, endured an injury-hit debut season at the Stadium of Light.
And with Freddie Ladapo, James Wilson and Lawrence Shankland moving elsewhere, Sunderland’s striker targets are dropping like flies.
Fortunately, Daryl Murphy has just become available.
At 36, he’d hardly be a long-term addition but, with the Irish Sun claiming that Nottingham Forest have told him to leave, the Republic of Ireland international could be a valuable, and very affordable, stop-gap.
Murphy knows the club after all. He played over 100 games for Sunderland during a five year spell between 2005 and 2010 and, given the right sort of service, the veteran target man could be a very reliable goalscorer at League One level.
It is only a few years since he plundered a Championship Golden Boot-winning tally of 27 for Ipswich Town after all.
With his former Ireland team-mate Aidan McGeady producing teasing balls from the flanks, Murphy could be the kind of old-school centre-forward who would both fit Jack Ross’s lone-striker system and turn those oh-so frustrating draws into wins.
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