Sunderland are understood to be on the verge of completing a deal for Reading striker Marc McNulty.
News of the Black Cats' fourth summer signing arrived via an unorthodox route, with Charlton Athletic manager Lee Bowyer telling the media last night that his side had lost out to the Wearsiders in the chase for an unnamed frontman, saying: “There was a striker we wanted but he's just gone to Sunderland."
And while Sunderland have yet to announce a new arrival which indicates that it is not yet the done deal that Bowyer suggested, Chroniclelive understands that the striker in question is Scotland international McNulty.
The well-travelled 26-year-old was one of many frontmen linked with Sunderland in the January transfer window , but ultimately the Black Cats signed Will Grigg on deadline day while McNulty joined Hibernian on loan.
However Jack Ross has renewed his interest in the former Coventry City and Sheffield United man as he looks to strengthen his attacking options.
Sunderland frontmen Grigg and Charlie Wyke managed just four league goals apiece last term and neither has scored in the club's three pre-season games so far.
Ross saw his side create a number of chances in their friendly against Portuguese side Belenenses on Saturday without converting, and said his team needed to be more 'ruthless' - admitting that that same failing proved costly last season when the Black Cats fell short in the race for automatic promotion before losing in the play-off final at Wembley against Bowyer's Addicks.
Ross said: "There were times last season where we felt that if we had been more ruthless we could have turned games around."
Ross also said that he and head of recruitment Tony Coton were as far as incoming transfers were concerned, and it seems that McNulty was one of those he was targeting.
He also said he was still operating under a 'one-out, one-in' policy, and would have to 'juggle a few things around' in order to bring in new players, and it may be that that is holding up an announcement about McNulty - or alternatively it is possible that the policy has been relaxed.
McNulty began his career at Livingstone before joining the Blades in 2014. He had loan spells at Bradford City and Portsmouth during his time at Bramall Lane, before joining Coventry in 2017.
He arrived at Reading in 2018 but made only 13 league appearances - just four of them starts - and scored one goal in the first half of the season.
He joined Hibs for the second half of the campaign and scored eight goals in 17 games in all competitions. His form north of the Border saw him called up to the Scotland squad in March, and he made his debut in a Euro 2020 qualifier against Kazakhstan.
Reading boss Jose Gomes needs to offload players this summer and McNulty was one of a group deemed surplus to requirements and told not to report back for pre-season training.
