Bolton Wanderers striker Gary Madine is understood to be on Sunderland's January radar. The 27-year-old has scored six goals in 21 appearances for Bolton this season including two in their 3-1 win over Barnsley last weekend and once in the 3-3 draw at the Stadium of Light, which was Simon Grayson's last game in charge of Sunderland. The target man joined Bolton in the summer of 2015 and signed a new two-year deal in May to extend his stay at the Macron Stadium. Birtley-born Madine progressed through the youth ranks of Carlisle United before joining Sheffield Wednesday while he has had loan spells at Rochdale, Coventry City, Chesterfield and Blackpool. He has also had a spell in prison after being convicted of assault in October 2013, serving five months of an 18-month sentence. Cash-strapped Sunderland will be severely limited financially in the transfer market and Coleman knows he will have to box clever when the January window opens. The striking department is one area Coleman will look to strengthen, especially if Bournemouth recall Lewis Grabban. The Echo revealed earlier this month that Liverpool duo goalkeeper Danny Ward and forward Ben Woodburn - both of whom played a part under Coleman in the Wales set-up - feature prominently in his thoughts. Money will be tight for the Black Cats but Coleman hopes to make some additions and wants the club to be on the ‘front foot’ should Bournemouth recall Grabban. The Cherries loaned Grabban to Sunderland in the summer in a cut-price deal, with the Black Cats paying only a fraction of his wages and no fee. There is a recall clause as part of the deal, with speculation mounting that his goalscoring exploits have attracted the attention of Wolves and Fulham. Coleman has targets lined up for the upcoming window, and so will be prepared should Grabban depart. Speaking earlier this month, Coleman said: "I’ve been here a few weeks, in my head, the positions and the people I’d like to bring in I already know. "That [recall] is a possibility but we’re not anticipating it, of course you never know in football. "Of course we have to look at that and if does happen we need to make sure we’re on the front foot and we’ve got someone coming the other way. Fingers crossed it won’t."
Very underwhelmed with being connected with this signing burI suppose it's where we are at. When we I say I think Asoro and Maja will bring the class to Madine it sums it up. But if Grabban goes he can bring passion and desire to the club and goals.
He was banging AJ's missus recently. I used to watch him when he played for Carlisle. I ****ing hope that he's improved since then.
If we lose Grabban and replace him with Madine then watch the goals dry up. If he's bought to help Grabban out then fine, we need someone like him. I'd like to think we could get better but we probably can't.
That "Especially if Bournemouth recall Grabban" thing is something that seems to be doing the rounds. There are loads of stories doing the rounds jumping on the back of something that the Mirror (I think) posted without any substance saying that Bournemouth were looking to recall Grabban. Howe and Coleman have not had any contact with each other about it, and they have 4 strikers, all of whom are better than Grabban in the PL. They can have him back - just send us Defoe in the package!! If it's financial (as Grabban is an asset at Championship level and probably a £10m striker by today's standards) Bournemouth will have to recall him, then agree a fee, then he'll have to agree terms and there are a lot of hoops to jump through to recall someone in the hope of selling him. As for Grabban - his "Lazy arse" attitude annoys the hell out of me, but he bangs goals in for fun at this level so there we go.
