Town, Norwich and Celtic have all been linked with a summer move for Everton striker James Vaughan, who is currently on loan at Crystal Palace. Vaughan has netted nine Championship goals over two spells with the Eagles this season.
The 22-year-old came through the youth system at Everton, making his debut as a 16-year-old in April 2005, breaking former Blues boss Joe Royle's record as the club's youngest first-team player by 11 days, a record which has since been beaten by Jose Baxter.
The Birmingham-born striker netted in that game, which was coincidentally against current loan club Palace, and became the Premier League’s youngest ever scorer.
Injuries have hampered Vaughan’s career since then and he has made only 11 starts and 49 sub appearances for the Toffeemen, scoring nine times.
The 5ft 9in tall frontman spent time on loan at Derby — after Paul Jewell and Chris Hutchings’s spells in charge at Pride Park — and Leicester before joining Palace in September for three months and then again in January for the remainder of the campaign. His nine goals have come in 28 starts and two games from the bench.
The England U17, U19 and U21 international is contracted to Everton until 2012 with Palace keen to sign him after his impressive season at Selhurst Park.
Town boss Jewell has said that adding at least one striker to his squad in the summer is a priority with West Brom’s Simon Cox amongst his targets, Doncaster’s Billy Sharp and Peterborough’s Craig Mackail-Smith linked, and Aston Villa youngster Nathan Delfouneso having been a loan target earlier in the year.
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