Striker set to return to the north-east at the Stadium of Light.
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Swansea City striker Danny Graham has rejected the chance to join hometown club Middlesbrough and looks set to complete a move to Sunderland before the end of the day.
Middlesbrough, where Graham started his career, had an offer accepted on Thursday morning for the £5million rate striker but the 27-year-old has turned down the chance of joining the Championship club, according to Sportinglife.
And now Sunderland are back in pole position to complete a £5million transfer and take the Gateshead-born forward back to his native north-east with the betting suggesting the completion of the deal is imminent. Norwich also have an offer on the table for the striker, who handed in a transfer request to Swansea City citing personal reasons for his desire to move.
Sunderland manager Martin O’Neill has been desperate to bring in a new striker to ease the workload on top scorer Steven Fletcher after allowing Louis Saha, Fraizer Campbell and Ji Dong-Won leave the club in the transfer window.
O’Neill has already signed midfielder Alfred N’Diaye from Bursaspor and defender Kader Mangane on loan from Al-Hilal this month, while he has also been linked with swoop for Lazio forward Mauro Zarate.