DANNY Graham’s nightmare spell at Sunderland looks set to continue after his proposed move to Brentford collapsed.

The Sunderland striker was close to ending almost two years on Wearside with the Bees keen to take him on loan until January.

However, reports in the capital say the move now appears to be off leaving the 29-year-old in limbo.

After spending the second half of last season on loan at Middlesbrough, Graham returned to the Stadium of Light in the summer, but he has only featured once for the Black Cats – playing two minutes at the end of their Capital One Cup defeat to Stoke City last month.

Sunderland head coach Gus Poyet has been keen to move the Gateshead-born front man on and was even willing to accept a cut-price fee of £1m despite the fact Martin O’Neill paid £5m for his services almost two years ago.

Plenty of Championship clubs have shown an interest in the striker, including Middlesbrough and Brighton, but they have either gone for other options or failed to agree a suitable deal.

Brentford would have presented the ideal opportunity for Graham to get his career back on track as he worked under Bees boss Mark Warburton during his time at Watford, while the Championship newcomers are in need of a goalscorer having scored just once in their last three games.

Poyet could have problems up front this weekend if Steven Fletcher is sidelined by the foot injury he sustained in the defeat to Arsenal on Saturday.

After witnessing Vito Mannone and Wes Brown make costly mistakes seven days after the 8-0 defeat at Southampton, the Uruguayan is pondering other changes for the trip to Crystal Palace on Monday.

Mannone and Brown are in danger of losing their places, while Adam Johnson is yet to find the level of performance he produced at the turn of the year.

Poyet will use the extra two days preparation to think about his next starting line-up and asked whether certain players needed to be taken out of the firing line, he responded: “It depends. I think it’s a long week.

“It’s going to be an even more difficult week than last week. When you lose two games in a row it’s tough. You need characters.

“I’m realistic, there’s nothing you can do apart from keep believing, continue to convince the players and pick the right team. We can debate if Jonno (Adam Johnson) needs to play or doesn’t need to play, or if Vito Mannone needs to play or doesn’t need to play. That’s my decision.

“The results will determine if I need to be here or not, but I’m not worried about that because I know what we have done and what we can do.

“It’s just the quality and the momentum which we need to change.”