It's thought, if true, that Sunderland will place a £1Million plus bid for Deano, who scored 20 goals last term, sooner rather than later. However, it's also likely to be laughed off as it would be an insult to the footballing world.
And, when their sites are complaining they're now 'scraping the barrel' for a striker, let them suffer Dean Ashton, once again, on Tuesday night - then they'll know what barrel they're scraping from.
Likelihood is though that this rumour has no truth in it and.... I've just tempted fate.