PETER Reid's search for a striker received a major boost last night when he was given the green light to step up his £6m pursuit of Tore Andre Flo.

Two days after Flo visited Sunderland, Rangers manager Alex McLeish made it clear he would not stand in the Norwegian's way if an acceptable offer were to come in.

McLeish has been told he has to cut his club's huge wage bill and must sell before he can buy as he looks to end Celtic's two-year stranglehold on Scottish football.

Flo has failed to live up to the Scottish record £12m fee that Rangers paid Chelsea for his services in November 2000 and the Gers are willing to accept a massive loss in order to move him on.

With the forward on around £36,000 a week - a wage Sunderland would refuse to match - Rangers are even understood to be prepared to offer him a £500,000 pay-off to tempt him to leave.

But Flo and his family are settled in Glasgow and Reid would need to use all of his persuasive powers to convince him to move to Wearside - even though the 29-year-old is surplus to requirements at Ibrox.

McLeish said: "Tore was at Sunderland a couple of days ago but no deal has been concluded. But I've not been told that the deal to take him there is dead.

"I'm not ruling anything in and I'm not ruling anything out, and we'll keep everything under wraps until business has been concluded one way or another.

"But I'm preparing for Sunday's game with Hibernian as normal and I expect Tore to be professional about the whole thing because he knows the way things are in football."

Having missed out on Robbie Keane, and been linked with a handful of other top forwards this summer without striking gold, Reid is desperate to bring Flo to the Stadium of Light.

The former Chelsea man has an impressive record in his 21 months in Scotland - 38 goals in 61 games - but crucially he has struggled in games against Celtic and leading European teams.

The targetman appears a ready-made replacement for Niall Quinn, and significantly Reid has left the No.9 shirt vacant - giving his new player-coach the No.29 jersey.

Sunderland appear unlikely to follow up their interest in Michael Mols, who trained with the Wearsiders this week.

McLeish said: "Michael has come back to us and I haven't heard whether Sunderland are keen to follow it up or not. I await a call from Sunderland to clarify the situation."

As Reid tries to bring a proven goalscorer to the Stadium of Light, he faces stiff competition from Southampton as he looks to finalise a £3m move for Leicester midfielder Matthew Piper.

The Saints have matched Sunderland's offer for 20-year-old Piper, whose form was one of the few bright spots of Leicester's relegation campaign.

Leicester manager Micky Adams said: "Matthew has had talks with Southampton and he's got a difficult decision to make. He can go to either Sunderland or Southampton, or he can stay with us."

In the meantime, Reid will step up his battle to secure his job in the face of growing discontent among Sunderland fans today in their opening Premiership game of the season at Blackburn Rovers.

After more than six years of steady progress at Sunderland, save for relegation to the First Division in 1997, Reid has felt the full force of the supporters' anger in recent months.

He was accosted by a fan and had a bottle of water thrown over him during the pre-season tour of Belgium. But a defiant Reid said: "I'm the favourite with a few bookies to be the first manager to get the sack this season, but favourites don't always come off.

"I can understand us being written off in certain quarters as relegation certainties after last season.

"I've been here for seven-and-a-half years, and in that time I've had pats on the back and had songs sung about me. I've had good times.

"When you have a disappointing season, you expect a bit of criticism, and I've not got a problem with that.

"There's a vocal minority against me but the majority of the fans are fantastic. They've been excellent every time we've been away and I don't envisage anything different at Blackburn."

The frustration of supporters has been fuelled by Reid's failure to become a major player in the summer transfer market. While Newcastle and Middlesbrough have spent a combined total of £35m, Reid's only major cash signing has been right-back Stephen Wright - who cost an initial £1.5m.

But the Sunderland manager defended his record and said: "It's hard work getting quality in because clubs want to keep their best players.

"I've agreed deals for a couple of strikers and I've made enquiries for plenty of others.

"But if players don't want to come, it's difficult for me to force them to. You'd have to ask the players why they've not come because we've met all the financial demands.

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