Burnley want Gray

He scored the first Championship goal this season. Playing for Sheffield United on the opening day of the season he gave them a 1-0 lead from the penalty spot in a match that kicked off at lunch time.

Three days later he was pulled out of their game against us and on the Thursday was on his way to Sunderland for around £1.1 million. And he got off to a good start even though his new club didn’t. They were beaten 3-1 on the opening day of the Premiership but it was Gray who scored the Sunderland goal.

Things haven’t gone as well as they might have for Andy on Wearside and more recently he’s been used as a substitute for the club his dad Frank played over 150 games for.

He followed in his dad’s, and his uncle Eddie Gray’s, footsteps right at the beginning of his career, starting with Leeds and he made his Premiership debut ten years ago this month in a win over West Ham.

After a loan spell at Bury he moved to Nottingham Forest in a £200,000 deal, but failed to establish himself in four years at the City Ground. There were further loans to Preston and Oldham before he signed for Bradford City on a free transfer in the summer of 2002.

Not many Clarets will recall but in the game when we threw a lead away against nine men at Valley Parade it was Gray who scored the first goal of the game, his first home goal for his new club.

The move to Bradford was the one that really started to move his career in the right direction and in just over a season and a half he netted 20 league goals, this for a player who had scored just twice in league games previously.

A move to Bramall Lane in February 2004 only improved things and the goals just kept on coming for Sheffield United. By the time he had played his last game for them he had netted 25 goals in just 56 league starts and that led to his move to Sunderland.

McCarthy had tried to sign him when he made the move to Sheffield and this time he had to cough up over a million to get him.

He’s certainly not found scoring goals against the Clarets too difficult. Apart from that goal in the 2-2 draw at Bradford he netted again as they won 2-0 at the Turf later in the season. He scored in both games against us last season as well for Sheffield United, getting their equaliser in the 1-1 draw on the opening day of the season and then scoring their second as we went down 2-1 at Bramall Lane.

So he could be a Claret by the time we next take the field after we came close to signing him before the January transfer window closed. He's a proven goalscorer over three seasons at this level, and we might be able to look forward to him getting amongst the goals again very soon with us.