Town are trying to secure the loan signing of Crystal Palace striker Stern John before today’s 5pm deadline, according to reports in south London. The 33-year-old previously played for Roy Keane at Sunderland.

The Trinidad and Tobago international has played for the Eagles only seven times since joining them in the summer after undergoing elbow surgery in August. He is yet to score this season.

Having played for Malta Carib Alcons in his home country, John moved on to the Carolina Dynamo, the New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers and Columbus Crew in the US before relocating to England with Nottingham Forest in 1999.

Since then the 5ft 11in tall frontman has played for a long list of clubs, largely at Championship level: Birmingham City, Coventry, Derby (loan), Sunderland, Southampton and Bristol City (loan), before joining Palace in the summer on a free transfer. He has made 109 appearances for his country, scoring 69 goals.

In eight months at Sunderland under Keane between January and August 2007, John scored five goals in 10 starts and six sub appearances, helping the Black Cats to win the Championship. Overall in English football, John has scored 97 goals in 250 starts and 105 sub substitute appearances.

On Tuesday Keane revealed he was looking at bringing in two loan players by 5pm today, one of which was a striker from a club outside the Premier League.

Photo: Action Images

FormerlyCGS added 14:05 - Nov 26 Now do people start to see why I want him out so much?? This dude is 33 and comes from a team in the same elague as us, surely if he aint palying there why do we want him. He has made our team go frmo average to bad and bad to worse. Give him even more time and it will go from worse to fcukin diabolical. KEANE OUT NOOOOW
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Moisha added 14:06 - Nov 26 Bloody el! I remember the same reaction when Shefki first signed and look what he did. I agree he is not the name some would want but he would deserve a chance first..... Ermmm, what has happened to Shefki??
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flyingdutchman added 14:07 - Nov 26 lmfao
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OnlyOneSirBobby added 14:08 - Nov 26 callumgarryskeemer...can i ask who you would have liked in then? realistically of course. who would you have wanted in that wouldnt make you make such stupid negative comments that only make you look like a tit? having known he was looking at someone outside of the premiership, who did you expect to come on loan to the team 2nd bottom in the league?
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Bluearmy added 14:08 - Nov 26 CGS what a negative boring person you must be my god everything you post is negative and do you ever wonder why we struggle to get people to this club with the attuide of some supporters like you i don't blame them.
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itfc_steve added 14:09 - Nov 26 shut up all you pesimistic idiots. u watch, he will be quality !!
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byebyesheepshanks added 14:09 - Nov 26 Of course he will get our support - but is this the careful team building and planning to get us ion the premier league! Looking a the the wonderfully balanced & happy team he has created, I thought, you know what we need to make this just perfect, Stern John! Are you sure Keano's a butcher!
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WeWereZombies added 14:10 - Nov 26 I did like it when I heard that Stern John had played for the 'New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers' but the best team name ever if Ghana's 'Mysterious Dwarves'
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byebyesheepshanks added 14:11 - Nov 26 Give us a couple of your prosaic Bluearmy!
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Bluearmy added 14:12 - Nov 26 I agree with ITFC steve said "shut up all you pesimistic idiots"
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naa added 14:13 - Nov 26 bluearmy: fair enough, though I have seen him play against us on quite a few occasions and he always looked OK to me. Nothing more, nothing less. And that was 8 or so years ago when he was in his prime. I'm not one of those thinking we should sign someone amazing - I happen to think we don't really need anyone (though I guess a kick-start might help) but we have shown in the past that there are gems out there. And I don't happen to think Stern John is one.

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Richardspain added 14:15 - Nov 26 Dwight Yorke next then ...
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lurcher added 14:15 - Nov 26 Shocking, quite clearley Roy is clutching at straws if this is true.
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Bluearmy added 14:16 - Nov 26 to naa who knows if he comes we will have to wait and see if he is a success of not
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FormerlyCGS added 14:17 - Nov 26 Who would I have wanted, how about wait for it........I will be hated but.......JORDAN RHODES - perectly good striker sold by our moronic manegr. If not, how about having this striker in place before the window shut and not waiting til a few hours before the deadline for a loan is shut??? So bluearmy its my gfault we cant get a decent striker. I was here last year when gio came, and marcus stewart and keuqi - it clearly aint my fault ya goon. When will you all realise that our manager is a tosser and sh*te at his job. he is dragging us down with im. Be positive - when were out ofthe relegation zone and have won more than one game i'll sheer louder than you all! So tell me your happy to be linked with a 33yr old has been from palace?????????????? I want you to answer that as well.

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cracko82 added 14:18 - Nov 26 Must admit although not expecting to get a Gio calibre player in I didn't expect this one. Agree that as much as I want Keane to succeed it is getting increasingly difficult game by game and strange decision after decision. For me its not that our strikers don't have goals in them, Pablo/Priskin/Stead all have a proven record at this level but we don't seem settled in terms of a starting 11. I think Priskin has far more potential than already displayed but he wasn't given much support against Sheff Wed on his own - where did the re-introduction of Martin come from whilst Pabs wasn't even in the squad. That one baffled me! Although Priskin could have put more effort in, didn't look interested but guess would you be when your in and out and getting flack!?!?! If John does sign will be delighted for him to prove me wrong by banging them in, but can't see him being the resolution to our worrying position. Keane obviously knows him from Sunderland, but thought the same of Martin!!! Come on Keano, something postive for us by 5:00 please.......

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naa added 14:19 - Nov 26 Bluearmy: Well yes, obviously. But you're seriously telling me that your mind is a blank regarding this story at the moment. That you have no opinion on his possible signing at all? Other than to say 'wait and see'. If not why did you come on here to post your opinion? It seems that you've come on here simply to tell others not to post unless it's positive. Odd.
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FormerlyCGS added 14:19 - Nov 26 TWTD should get spell check
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Thetruth added 14:21 - Nov 26 In fairness and defence of Keane............ When has any Ipswich manager ever been able to bring the real top quality players to this club??? Could the biggest be Finidi or Mattero Sereni in name terms, we really dont have much pull down here in sunny suffolk, players just dont fancy the area and their WAG handbrakes would not enjoy the shopping! Think this is bull, but we wait and see, not long to go now...........!

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AJblue added 14:24 - Nov 26 Callum, i am amazed that you spelt TWTD, right! lol c'mon try this for size .... Stern John to play for grumpy Roy.....No? Oh well best i could do...sorry.
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hype313 added 14:26 - Nov 26 FFS He hasn't signed anything or anyone and you lot are still at eachothers throats!! Some of our fans have visions of grandeur here, who do you lot expect?? Torres and Van Persie?? Having said that I must admit that the possibility of a 33yr old Stern John hardly excites me, but if he scores us goals and gets us up the league then happy days.
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dobbie73 added 14:27 - Nov 26 I am open minded on Stern John (if true), but everyone should remember this ... a loan is player is NOT going to be at the top of their tree, whichever position they play in. A loan striker is NOT going to be a 20+ goals a season player, because if they were then they would be in the starting XI for their club. No, a loan player (almost by definition) is either a promising youngster needing experience, an old veteran who still has something to offer but is too old/slow/unfit to play every week, or a fringe player that just needs a bit of pitch time to keep match fit. At the end of the day, a loan player is there to either add depth to a small squad, or add temporary quality IF that quality is lacking in the squad. And I am not sure that the quality IS lacking in our squad - it is a lack of confidence for me, and an additional striker like Stern John (or one of a similar age/experience) can add mental strength, experience, coaching knowledge and even just a few positive words for our existing strikers who may be a bit short on confidence. And of course, weighing in with a few killer passes and goals woudl also be very nice ... Saying all that, I do echo the call that others have made - Kevin Philips would be good!

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OnlyOneSirBobby added 14:28 - Nov 26 CGS...im totally 150% with you when it comes to rhodes. its the only transfer news EVER that has made me angry. i dont understand the move, and never will....however, its happened and to be honest, when the window closed at the end of august, i thought we had a decent set of strikers, priskin, stead, walters, counago, connor and even martin (who played up front for man utd reserves at end of last year and did well) all looked good at that point. we were scoring goals a while back, 3 against doncaster, 3 against sheff utd...so the reason its so late and close to the deadline is because of our recent poor scoring form. whilst im not thrilled with the news of stern john coming, i can understand the move. we just need someone to stick a couple of chances away, get our confidence up, win a couple of games, i truly believe we just need a kick up the a*** to get us going. and hes got a good scoring record so lets get behind the team rather than curse every move the club makes!! and as far as his age...like i said earlier, couldnt give two hoots if hes 16 or 66, as long as he scores, i dont care

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Hunterssecondball added 14:29 - Nov 26 If you had to start or resurect a business, and you were able to bring in people you knew had done a job for you before andthey were available, would you go and try and get somone who hadn't worked for you and wasn't available? I don't think so. 1 goal every 2.5 games. Not a bad return, and certainly better than our conversion rate at the moment. Surely he would have taken one of those chances last Saturday. The doom mongers amoungst you want a striker. Not many available. A 1 in 2.5 striker becomes available. What do you do? Moan! Before we've even signed the guy/or not. I bet if any of you owned pets they would all have commited suicide by now than live with you. Get a life, prefferably outside of being a Town supporter!

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PimsNumber1 added 14:29 - Nov 26 a desperate signing from a desperate manager. i wanted jim out but at least he could attract better players than Roy , which i find amazing really, the fact this guy is 33 and cant get into the palace striker selection tells you everything. They are hardly notts forest or sheff utd , with loads of surplus strikers. alan Lee would have been miles better for us, possibly even lisbie

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