Sheffield Wednesday boss Garry Monk is hoping to add Crawley Town striker Bez Lubala to their ranks in January, as reported by Team Talk.
The 21-year-old has seven goals in 16 outings thus far this season, having only moved to East Sussex in the summer after rejecting a new deal with Birmingham City. Monk, who had Lubala at St Andrew’s, has seen the player’s development in senior football and is now widely believed to want to give him a chance to step back up.
The Owls are not the only side hoping to snare the attacker according to the report; Middlesbrough, Wigan and League One side Peterborough are all thought to have been keeping an eye on him, but Monk hopes giving the youngster his debut with the Blues will have helped build a relationship.
It’s believed he could look to do a deal where he loans the forward back to Crawley for the rest of the season, taking him to Sheffield full time in the summer.
Lubala played for a number of amateur sides before moving to the Blues as a youth, including Carib SSFC, Leicester Nirvana and Friar Lane & Epworth. He made four Championship appearance for them in his two seasons as a professional, before moving south in the summer.
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Lubala has thrived in lower league football and will likely get a move back at some point; he has to ask himself what is better for his development.
Having turned Birmingham down in the summer for Crawley, he clearly believes first-team football is best for him, meaning that he’s likely to want to remain at Crawley for the season, whatever happens afterwards.
It might be that Monk has to hold fire until the summer, especially if Crawley believe they’ll get a better deal after a full season of goals.
