Ross McCormack has been at the centre of a media swirl of late, after it emerged that he had been skipping training and it now looks likely that he will leave Aston Villa.

Sheffield Wednesday, Brighton, Norwich, Wolves, Derby, Burnley and Sunderland are all believed to have expressed an interest in signing the talismanic striker but as of yet, he is no close to the Villa Park exit door.

The Scot is now training with the Under 23's which is an understandable punishment by Bruce, but a player of his quality should be playing at the top end of the Championship, if not the Premier League and this is why the prospect of signing him is such an attractive proposition to these sides.

The one issue McCormack has however, is his attitude and this is something which needs addressing for whoever is lucky enough to sign him.

The issue being his attitude.

The way McCormack handled himself at Villa hasn't been great and this has hindered his progress severely.

When the Scot signed for Villa in the summer, there was a huge expectation placed upon him that he would score them 20 goals per season and be the man to fire them back to the top flight.

It hasn't worked out that way for McCormack, which is largely down to how he has applied himself in training.

McCormack has been branded as unfit and overweight in the past and it seems like the same problems have haunted him at Villa.

That said, potential suitors could be put off because he is unfit and his attitude will be too big a problem to address for some managers, in the fear he could upset the dressing room.

However, McCormack is a prolific goal scorer and he is worth taking a chance on for any team but his chance of finding a new team may be scuppered by his new 'bad boy' tag.

Despite this, one example stands out from last season as something along similar lines to McCormack, and this player was also greeted with the same media swirl.

That being Joey Barton at Burnley.

When Barton signed for Burnley he had the 'bad boy' tag and most football fans berated the Clarets for singing him, but Sean Dyche showed, if you can get a player on the straight and narrow, then you really can get the best out of them and Barton turned out to be influential for Burnley last season.

If whoever signs McCormack can sort his problems out, they will have a great player on their hands and he could prove to be an influential player for them.

Make no mistake; McCormack is a born goal scorer and those types of player are hard to come by, so the opportunity to get one in should not be sniffed at by any club.