Tyrone Barnett may stay at Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury Town striker Tyrone Barnett looks to have vanished from Southend United's radar – as the Shrimpers eye up a move for Lee Novak.
Southend boss Phil Brown has stepped up his pursuit of two strikers, with interest in ex-Glasgow Rangers forward Nicky Clark.
He is keen to sign a frontman just released by a Championship club, who played on loan in League One last season and who he met in Newcastle.
Geordie Novak, who Town are interested in, appears to fit the bill, having been released by Birmingham City after a season on loan at Chesterfield.
Brown said: "We're interested in signing Nicky and also another striker I travelled up to Newcastle to hold talks with.
"There's a lot of interest in him but I spoke with him for an hour-and-a-half and we're probably at second or third base in terms of finances now.
"The next base is for him to decide if he wants to move down from the north, but I'm hoping he'll be coming to have a look at the area when he's back from holiday."
Barnett is due back at the Greenhous Meadow after spending four months on loan at Roots Hall, scoring five goals in 20 games, if he doesn't move on in the meantime.
Brown wanted to sign the 30-year-old, who has a year left on his Shrewsbury contract, on a permanent basis.
But he didn't want to pay a fee, with Town believed to be looking to recoup a fair chunk of the £100,000 they laid out for him back in January 2015.
Town boss Micky Mellon is looking to bring in, at least, one more striker as one of the three more planned arrivals this summer.
So far he has drafted in striker AJ Leitch-Smith and Louis Dodds, who can play as an out-and-out striker but also in the No 10 role.
They join the attacking positions thinned by the departures of Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro, Scott Vernon, Jordan Clark, Elliot Grandin and loanees Sullay Kaikai, Kyle Vassell and Larnell Cole.
But, as with Barnett, Mellon is also due to take back James Collins, who was farmed out on loan to Northampton where he scored eight goals in 21 games to help them to the League Two title.
Like Barnett, Collins has a year left on his contract. Also on Mellon's radar is Fulham right-back Jack Grimmer, who he wants to bring back for a third spell on loan.
