January 5 2007

Julian Gray

Peter Taylor wants to bring Birmingham winger Julian Gray back to Crystal Palace.

Gray, 27, is out of favour at St Andrews and Taylor has lined-up a loan move for the left-sided star, who spent four years at Palace before moving to Birmingham in 2004.

Taylor has been given the go-ahead to bolster his squad by chairman Simon Jordan and Gray is top of his wanted list, even though the former Arsenal trainee fell out with the Eagles owner during his previous spell at Selhurst Park.

Taylor, who has also been linked with Sheffield United's Paul Ifill, said: “Julian is a player I like. He’s a great athlete and he has a lovely left foot.

“He works hard and he’s an ex-Palace boy of course, so he’s a player who could be on my list.

“I’ve always said we want an out and out wide player and that is the main area I’m looking at.

“The chairman knows the type of player I’m looking for and we’re hopeful we will be doing something soon,” Taylor said. “If the player is identified, I like to get it done as soon as possible.”

Taylor, who revealed Bradford are keen to take Tommy Black on loan again, will be without Marco Reich for four weeks with a broken arm, while Gary Borrowdale is set for a hernia operation.

“Marco has got a crack in his arm, so he is definitely going to be out for at least four weeks," Taylor said.

“Borrowdale is going across to Switzerland or Germany to have his hernia done, so he won’t be available until the Hull game.

“Danny Granville is still feeling his hamstring as well. He’s had a scan and it’s not a tear but we can’t get to the bottom of that one at the minute.

“Bradford have made another phone call regarding Tommy. They want to know if he is fit so it wouldn’t surprise me if he went back there on loan.”