Luton, Coventry or Preston to sign Sam Parkin

Parkin arguing with a referee. Perfect replacement for Howard?

Preston and Luton Town are both thought to have had £400,000 offers accepted for Parkin, 25, and Coventry and Brighton are also in the hunt for Parkin. Sam Parkin has played for Swindon, Northampton, Oldham, Wycombe and Millwall before signing for Ipswich Town. The biggest success that Parkin has had in his career came with Swindon Town, where he scored 67 goals in 124 appearances. Parkin has had less success with Ipswich however. Last season was hampered by injuries and he scored 5 goals in 17 starts.

Brian Stein has already said that Luton are interested in bringing in about three players before the transfer window closes. In a recent poll on this website, most fans agreed that it was up front that Luton needed to strengthen most, with no proven goalscorer at League One level. Parkin is also a similar build to Steve Howard, so perhaps he may be seen as a Howard replacement. There may still be problems if we signed Sam Parkin though - he has yet to prove himself at Championship level, so the last thing we need is another Feeney - good in League One but can't score in the Championship. On a positive note, Newell hasn't let us down very much with signings. He's signed Edwards, Beresford, Heikkinen, Underwood McSheffrey on loan and to an extent Vine has been successful with us despite a poor scoring ratio. Whether we can tempt him away from Preston is a different matter. We may now have the money thanks to the Howard and Nicholls' transfers, but consecutive seasons in the play-offs may mean that Preston are a more attractive proposition than Luton to Parkin. Newell's tough stance on agents that has apparently seen us miss out on Danny Senda may not help either.