Coventry City desperately need to sign a striker to replace Marc McNulty; it is the missing ingredient in next season’s promotion push.

The Sky Blues – under the guidance of Mark Robins – are hoping for back-to-back promotions and a long-awaited return to the Championship, but they need a prolific front man to fire them to glory next season.

McNulty hit 28 goals for Coventry last season, leading them to promotion via the League Two play-offs, but has departed this summer to join Reading.

While Max Biamou, Jordan Ponticelli and Jonson Clarke-Harris are all decent options, none of them are likely to hit the 20-goal mark next season and propel the West Midlands side into promotion contention.

After a move for Portsmouth’s Conor Chaplin looks to have hit a snag, it is time for Robins to turn his attention to Nottingham Forest starlet Ben Brereton.

Brereton started numerous games for the Reds last season but has been forced down the pecking order by the arrivals of Hillal Soudani and Lewis Grabban.

With Daryl Murphy also on their books, a loan move to League One would be the most sensible career choice for the England youth international at this stage of his development.

At Coventry, the teenage talent would be a starter and he would score goals for fun at that level.

He is not quite ready to lead the line for Nottingham Forest in the Championship but the 19-year-old would return to The City Ground as a much better player after a season out on loan.

Coventry play good football and Brereton would receive fantastic service from Biamou, Jodi Jones, Tony Andreu, Tom Bayliss and Jordan Shipley.

The talented teenager would surely be looking at hitting 20 goals in League One next season, which would do his confidence the world of good and improve him as he looks ahead to a fruitful career at Nottingham Forest.