Sunderland are considering making a move for Leyton Orient striker Macauley Bonne according to Talksport.
However, the South Shields Gazette quotes a Daily Mail report which suggests it is Bonne’s strike partner Josh Koroma that Jack Ross is interested in, having made a bid for him in January.
The pair helped propel Orient to the National League title netting thirty-four goals between them, with Bonne scoring twenty-three and Koroma contributing eleven.
Twenty-three-year-old Bonne came through the ranks at Colchester and finally found his feet in East London in 2017 after loan spells at Lincoln City and Woking. Talksport claims there is a £200,000 release clause on his current two-year deal he signed in 2018.
Koroma is three years younger than his strike partner and is an Academy-graduate at Brisbane Road. He has already made ninety-seven senior appearances for the O’s scoring on twenty occasions and is very highly rated at the club. The young forward also signed an improved two-year contract in the summer of 2018.
It is not surprising the pair are attracting interest from higher up the football pyramid with Bonne in particular impressing scouts. The Talksport report claims Middlesborough, Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United and even Premier League Leicester City keen on newly promoted Leyton Orient’s number nine.
Our View
Bonne is still raw but has made significant improvement while at Orient, he is a gamble but at £200,000 one that some championship clubs will feel it is worth taking.
Koroma might be the better option for Sunderland, at twenty he is full of potential and with close on one hundred appearances to his name already in the unforgiving National League he is obviously a tough young player.
Whether either can cut it at the higher level is debatable, but my gut feeling his Koroma is the better option.
£200,000 for Bonne ? In your dreams !!!!!