Town chairman David Sheepshanks has revealed that Town are waiting on an offer for a Premiership player. The Blues have put in a seven-figure bid for an as yet unnamed player, but progress has stalled due to the selling club's reluctance to sell.

The fact that it is suggested the player is from the Premiership means that David Sheepshanks is not referring to the interest in Bryan Hughes reported yesterday. If that deal goes through as well as this latest link Town could find themselves with two new faces as they go into the final third of the Premiership season.

The chairman said: "There is no certainty that there will be a new arrival but I am hopeful. There is no further progress at the moment as we are dealing with a very reluctant seller."

There will be a lot of speculation as to the identity of the Premiership player with plenty of names already linked to Town in recent weeks. Manchester United's Mark Wilson was the apparent target of a George Burley scouting mission to their reserve game with Bradford a few weeks back. Other stories claimed that Bradford's David Hopkin was the object of his attentions, but this seems less likely.

Recently Stephen Glass from Newcastle was linked, however it seems likely Newcastle would be happy to sell the ex-Aberdeen man and that there would be no stall if he was the man.

Some might wish Town to return to Spurs for old hero Mauricio Taricco while a host of other names may be linked in the days to come.

David Sheepshanks is off to the USA for a few days on a fact-finding mission. He will look at the way a variety of sports are run stateside and will look to incorporate ideas into the running of Town.

Sheepshanks and Commercial Director Paul Clouting will visit Washington DC and New York and meet with officials from organisations which run baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey.

Town have lent their old pitch cover to Colchester United. The Town Old Boys club haven't had a home game in 45 days and it looks likely that their game with Millwall this evening will also be called off.

Although the cover won't help Colchester get tonight's game on it will be useful in ensuring that Saturday's game with Wigan will go ahead.

Town secretary David Rose approached the Layer Road club over the weekend and offered the cover free of charge as we have with so many players in the past.

Town's youths are back in action this evening in the FA Youth Cup (Portman Road KO 7pm). The youngsters' opponents are Sheffield United who overcame Tranmere in the previous round.

The winners of this tie will meet either Manchester United or Nottingham Forest in the quarter finals. Town have regular keeper Darren Kelly returning from injury while Darren Bent will seek to continue his rich vein of scoring form. The England U16s player scored two at the weekend and two in the last round of this tournament.

Admission is £2 adults and £1 children.

Town squad: Kelly, Hulyer, Artun, Beevers, Bonwick (Capt), Snowdon, Bloomfield, Westlake, Richards, Ambrose, Bent, Dickinson, Robinson, Caffey, Burton, Subrin and Duncan.

The existing roof on Churchman's has begun to be lifted. By the Everton game the ground should look significantly different.

Former Town star Mauricio Taricco is one of 31 Premiership players whose passports are being investigated. The Argentinian qualified for an Italian passport through his father who was born in Italy and moved to Argentina in his twenties. As Italy are in the EU this meant the full-back didn't required a work permit to play in the UK.

The Premiership have become concerned that a number of players' passports are not entirely above board. We're sure Mauricio has done nothing wrong and that this is all a formality.

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