£10m Newcastle United forward is set to link up with League One promotion chasers

Former Newcastle United number nine Dwight Gayle is off the free agent list as he agrees to join League One Derby County.

Dwight Gayle was released by Stoke City last month and has been floating around as a free agent ever since.

Newcastle United could have done with looking at the 34-year-old to fill a gap up front, bringing him back for a second spell after we signed him for £10million back in 2016- we'd have taken him until the end of the season, we've had worse ideas. Maybe.

Derby County are currently 2nd in League One

It looks like Derby County will be the beneficiaries of Dwight Gayle's availability as they continue their push to climb back out of League One. The Rams are currently second in the league six points behind Portsmouth.

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Dwight Gayle had six years on Tyneside before moving to Stoke City scoring 34 goals in 122 appearances.

The bulk of those goals came in Newcastle's second spell in the Championship when he bagged 23 goals in 32 games and was a huge part of that promotion push under Rafa Benitez.

Fans thought Gayle had found his level in the Championship

The former Crystal Palace man never really hit the same heights in the Premier League with many fans believing he'd found his level in the Championship, however, that's not to say he didn't score some big goals for Newcastle in other competitions.

Even at 34 you'd expect that Gayle should be able to bag a few goals for Derby in League One and help give them that big push to get back into the Championship.

Best of luck you, Dwight, and I'm sorry I said you were never a number 9 in 2015 before you went on to smash in goals for fun for us in the Championship.