Aston Villa's Peter Crouch and Sunderland's Kevin Kyle are reported to be amongst the strikers Joe Royle's is keen on taking on loan. Elsewhere it is claimed that a bid for Arsenal's Francis Jeffers has failed.

Kyle was in action for the Black Cats last night and scored as they beat Arsenal 3-2 in the Worthington Cup. However, despite winning six caps and scoring one goal for Scotland, he has only made two starts for his club.

The 21-year-old has also spent spells on loan at Huddersfield, Darlington and Rochdale. At 6'3" he would fit the bill as a player to add some height to the Town attack.

Crouch is even taller at 6'7" and should he sign would break the record for the tallest player ever to don a Town shirt.

He joined Villa for £5 million over the summer from Portsmouth after starting his career with Spurs and then moving on to QPR.

The 21-year-old is by no means a first choice at Villa Park and was not involved in their Worthington Cup tie last night. He did, however come on as sub during the 0-0 draw with Blackburn at the beginning of the month.

Royle is hoping to bring in a striker (and possibly a defender) before the weekend but despite making contact with a reported eight Premiership managers he is yet to be successful.

Loan players need to be registered before 5pm on Friday to be involved in Saturday matches.

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