Crystal Palace are in talks with Preston North End over a move for striker Jordan Hugill.
The 25-year-old has scored eight goals in 27 appearances in the Championship this season, including three winners that have earned his side an extra six points.
He also scored 12 times in 44 league games last season and handed in a transfer request in the final days of the August transfer window, which was rejected.
Palace and Preston are yet to agree on a fee for Hugill, who is under contract at Deepdale until 2019. Reading had an £8m bid for the striker turned down last summer.
Any deal would see Port Vale, one of Hugill’s previous clubs, net a windfall – they negotiated a 20 per cent sell-on clause as part of the deal that took him to Preston in the summer of 2014.
It applies to any profit Preston make on the £25,000 they paid Vale for the striker.
Hugill played in non-League football with Seaham Red Star, Consett, Whitby Town and Marske United, and also spent time at the Glenn Hoddle Academy, before signing his first professional deal at the age of 21 with Port Vale.