GRIMSBY Town are preparing to launch a cheeky £75,000 bid for Sunderland's out-of-favour winger John Oster.

Oster joined the Black Cats three and a half years ago for £1m from Everton, but has struggled to make a name for himself at the Stadium of Light.

And now it is believed Sunderland chief Howard Wilkinson is willing to accept the knock-down price in a bid to remove the young Welshman from the club's wage bill. Oster is out of contract in the summer and is currently enjoying his second loan spell of the season at Blundell Park.

And Grimsby boss Paul Groves hopes the Premiership strugglers will accept the cut-price deal now before the player leaves in the summer on a free transfer.

"I don't think I would be doing my job properly if I didn't try to keep him," said Groves.

"He has got proven quality and it isn't a risk from that point of view.

"He's the type of player we want to keep and, if we could do that, it would go a long way towards helping us achieve our goal of staying in the First Division.

"I don't know if we will manage to buy him or not, but I would like to keep him and the fans want me to keep him here?

"People have stopped me in the street to tell me how much we need to keep him here.

"We have got to entertain them and John has that ability to excite people and get the crowd going.

"But we can only have him for this month unless we do manage to buy him."

Oster has only made seven League starts for Sunderland since former boss Peter Reid signed him as a highly-rated young midfielder.

And now Sunderland are hoping to recoup as much money as they can from an out-of-sorts squad to enable Wilkinson to bring in his own players when the transfer window opens in the summer.

Meanwhile, Sunderland striker Marcus Stewart has insisted he is the man to fire the club to safety.

The Black Cats are seven points adrift of safety with ten games to go and Stewart has recovered from a thigh injury and is ready for a return to action.

And with goal-shy Sunderland due to face Fulham at Loftus Road on Saturday, the former Ipswich Town striker believes he will find his feet in front of goal.

"My message to the manager is that I think I can get him goals," said Stewart, who has only made three League starts since arriving in August.

"I'd like to start more games and I'd like to start them up front.

"Obviously we're in a bad position, but I think we can go to Fulham and get something. I'd like to be involved and I still think we can get out of this."

Sunderland youngster Patrick Collins has been named in the England Under 18 squad that will face Switzerland on Wednesday 12 March. And goalkeeper Jon Kennedy, 22, has had his loan move to Gateshead extended for one month.

Read more about Sunderland here.