SUNDERLAND are believed to be ready to swoop for Burnley talisman Robbie Blake.

The Black Cats are putting together a £600,000 bid for the Clarets top scorer to solve their own goalscoring problems.

But I understand Burnley have not yet heard anything from their First Division rivals, who recently had an £800,000 bid for Huddersfield's Jon Stead laughed out and would certainly fail if they made another audacious bid for Blake.

Burnley's joint £1m record signing has been arguably the player of the year so far with a series of blistering performances, most recently at Preston last Saturday.

His sixth goal in as many games at Deepdale took his tally to 13 for the season and 29 in just 67 starts to underline his value to the Clarets attack.

And with Burnley currently in financial straits - and manager Stan Ternent looking to add to his squad rather than see it further depleted - any bid forthcoming from Sunderland seems doomed to failure.