Sunderland boss Peter Reid may be about to smash the clubs transfer record by making a bid for Belgian striker Emile Mpenza.

The Schalke forward has made no secret of his desire to play in the Premiership and he could well sign in time for next weekend's derby with Newcastle.

Under-fire Reid is desperate to add some firepower to the Premiership's third worst scorers - 20 in 25 games - and he sees Mpenza as the ideal replacement for the ageing Niall Quinn, whose partnership with Kevin Phillips has run dry this season.

Reid said: "I do watch a lot of games and I enjoy it and over the last few days I have seen a number of games and seen a number of players and I'm always on the look-out to strengthen the squad.

"I cannot tell you any names but I'm actively working on trying to bring frontmen in and I'm getting closer.

"I don't think it's right to mention players from other clubs as it puts pressure on people but certainly I have seen Mpenza play recently."

Reid has already failed with bids for Jan Koller and more recently Dwight Yorke but he will be hoping to make it third time lucky with 23-year-old Mpenza, who has 30 international caps to his name.

However, a spokesman for the Bundesliga club said: "There has been no bid from Sunderland. They may be watching him but I don't know whether they have an interest.

"Mpenza is contracted until 2004 and he recently made it clear that he couldn't see himself leaving the club before his contract expired."

Sunderland's current transfer record stands at £4.5m, which they paid Chelsea for Emerson Thome 18 months ago and if they are to stand any chance of bringing Mpenza to the Stadium of Light then they might have to stump up almost double that to persuade Schalke to part with one of their prize assets.

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