The problem with this is, name someone you think fits the bill. I'll bet you can't. PL goalscorers are like gold dust, even old semi-useless ones, and clubs that have them don't let them go anywhere, least of all on loan. In today's squad game, the bigger clubs who might have a bit of talent to spare keep four forwards, and the clubs our size don't have any worth loaning out.

The options are really an unproven foreign player who's supposedly promising: think Alexander Sorloth; a goalscorer from the championship: think Dwight Gayle; or give someone from your own academy a shot. Really, if you don't have the cash to buy the finished produt (Haaland, Kane, etc.) then you have to be lucky as much as anything else. A few Sorloth-types do make the grade, but not many. Ditto the Gayles. Nothing resembling a goal scorer of any pedigree is going to be available on the loan market.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.

That's true but I meant players who've been released or are at the end of their contract rather than on loan. It might be short-termism but so is improving players for other clubs.