Town are reported to have held talks with released Aston Villa midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker. The 27-year-old left Villa at the end of last season having spent four years with the Midlanders.

Reo-Coker was born in Thornton Heath and started his career with the old Wimbledon, making his senior debut in the 2002/03 season. His displays for the Dons impressed West Ham who signed him for £500,000 in January 2004.

After three and a half not always happy years at Upton Park, during which time he captained the side under Alan Pardew, the former England U21 skipper joined Aston Villa for £8.5 million in July 2007 having asked for a transfer.

Reo-Coker’s Villa career looked to be serious jeopardy in 2009 when he was involved in a training ground bust-up with manager Martin O’Neill, but he was restored to the side under Gerard Houllier and was even captain for a while after regular skipper Stiliyan Petrov picked up a knock. However, with his contract up this summer, he was released at the end of the campaign.

Capped 23 times at U21 level, scoring once, Reo-Coker last year rejected the international advances of Sierra Leone, the country of his doctor father’s birth and where he lived for six years as a child.

Reo-Coker, who TWTD Message Board rumours claimed to have been at Portman Road with team-mate John Carew early in the summer, was recently linked with West Brom but over the weekend that switch was reported to have broken down.

The midfielder is unlikely to be short on offers from both Premier League and Championship clubs and, like other out-of-contract players, is probably weighing up his options.

Town target Lee Bowyer is almost certainly in a similar position with Leeds and Derby also both interested but with talks regarding a move to Portman Road understood to have made progress this week with the completion of a deal prior to next week's pre-season tour of Holland not out of the question.

Elsewhere, former Blue Ian Westlake is on trial with NASL side the Montreal Impact. Westlake, 27, left Wycombe Wanderers after an injury-hit spell at the end of the season.

Meanwhile, reported Town target David Nugent has signed a three-year deal with Leicester having been out of contract at Portsmouth, while Sheffield United are claimed to have slapped a £4 million price tag on defender Matt Lowton, who is believed to be interesting the Blues and Blackpool.

Photo: Action Images

smallridge4 added 09:27 - Jul 6 Hmmm. I like this, now go get me Owen Hargreaves as well and I'll be happy
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Fatboy added 09:42 - Jul 6 Sounds like Blackpool will need to up their bid of £300,000 quite a bit then!
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BerlinBlue added 09:43 - Jul 6 the owen hargreaves suggestion is interesting... terrible injury record, that's true, but on a pay-as-you-play deal why not? good experience with bayern, man u (when he played..) and england... he also knows he may find it pretty difficult persuading clubs to sign him...
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robdaful added 09:52 - Jul 6 Intresting one. I'd be more than happy with him. But I remember him saying he wouldn't drop down a league.
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johnhazelbum added 09:57 - Jul 6 Perhaps it would be better if Ipswich stopped allowing itself to be linked with players as we haven't managed to sign any of them. It is publicity for the target player and a big dissapointment for Ipswich fans. Brighton didn't tell the world that they were signing Mikail-Smith, they just got on and did it.
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tractorboy2434 added 10:05 - Jul 6 Some people on here need to take a reality check, Nigel Reo-Coker, Owen Hargreaves, David Nugent, the list is endless, they will/were never, ever going to come here, they will all go to ambitious clubs willing to pay good m oney and that is not ITFC, we will always end up with 2nd, 3rd or 4th choice because we are quite simply not prepared to pay anything other than average wages, just ask yourself why we have taken the Wickham cash and are signing players well past their best on short term deals, Clegg and Evans are balancing the books and reducing the wage bill, about a dozen players out and a handful in, now out go our 2 fitness coaches just at the start of pre season, sadly an average Championship side with limited ambition and very limited appeal.

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Jeff_winger added 10:05 - Jul 6 WOW!!!! what happened to Westlake he is now on trial with a club in the SECOND tier of American football, thats got to be a very poor league! He had such promise.
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Suzanna_Gekkaloys added 10:12 - Jul 6 Never going to happen. Don't insult your own intelligence by even entertaining it for a second.
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johnhazelbum added 10:12 - Jul 6 tractorboy2434 has got it exactly right. unfortunately we're being strung along by Clegg, ME and PJ. The budget has been agreed and they have decided we are not going to pay to be competitive next season. We are going to have to get lucky to make the play-offs instead.
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Paulc added 10:16 - Jul 6 Everybody should just calm down and read this part in the article: "The midfielder is unlikely to be short on offers from both Premier League and Championship clubs and, like other out-of-contract players, is probably weighing up his options." So if his options are Ipswich a good club with ambition but limited resources compared to some Prem clubs or a Premiership club that can offer top flight football and probably a bigger salary package..........mmmmm I wonder. In summary would be a very good signing, reality he won't come here.

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bluelady added 10:37 - Jul 6 nice to see we have ambition in even talking to players like this, BUT it wont happen!
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Surco72 added 10:40 - Jul 6 tractor2434 if there is truth in the fact we have spoken to the likes of Reo Coker and Carew and signed Chopra ,then surely this shows the clubs ambition ? Not every player we offer a contract to will join as all other clubs will find but we have to be linked with this type of quality in the first place . And if you think the likes of Chopra and Ellington are on less than Mac and Norris were on then you are mistaken ,and the reason that players are signed on short term deals is probably because we are trying to get out of this league now with certain players and if promotion happens we do not want to be tied to long contracts with players who will not be able to step up ,very good management and financial policies . But then Evans is a very good businessman and knows where he is taking the club .

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johnhazelbum added 10:48 - Jul 6 Evans is such a good business man that he has spent over £30m on players that are now out of contract and at another club, of no resale value, worth considerably less than what we paid and only fit to be loaned out with Ipswich paying some of their wages. He so good we haven't made any money on our transfers (Conor excepted) since he arrived ( and we've had to pay out for sacked managers)

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DiamondGezzer added 10:54 - Jul 6 Surco72 : - A voice of reason. Thank God !
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rosseden added 11:29 - Jul 6 johnhazelbum..... yes, thats business, he offsets his losses against his profits, therefore only costing him 50% in reality of the actual outlay.... then you depreciate your asset base over the term of the contract, so end up with a nil valued asset at contract end. So, in reality, hes running the business very well, it just doesnt stack up when you look at ITFC in isolation...... but ME works on a far bigger picture....... ITFC isnt just ITFC anymore, its part of the ME Group, which means it wont make sense to most people on a day to day basis...... if we wanted someone to run the club in isolation look no further than Peter Risdale.... great track record there.......

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GTRKing added 11:34 - Jul 6 look we won't get a prem player here & yess we will get players he said 2 this week. So can't u all just wait & stop moaning. Chopra & ingimarrssion are class players ellington good & Cresssell got potitential so give him time.
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SMS added 12:07 - Jul 6 It would be an absolute touch if we pulled that off. A midfielder with an engine. A ready made captain too. He is the same type of player as Norris but younger and better! Where is this signing? I fear we're still very short (DR, DC, MC, MR, SC)
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whoppit added 12:10 - Jul 6 Pointless story. Would never come here in a million years.
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blueherts added 12:25 - Jul 6 Get Ade Coker
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StowTractorBoy added 12:27 - Jul 6 Will be very very surprised if we got him. The Daily Mirror reported this, this morning so I won't hold my breath. Reo Coker would be great for us but a more realistic target will be Koumas. Of course I would love Reo Coker but don't think it can possibly happen.
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blueherts added 12:29 - Jul 6 Robbie Rogers
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Jsl_itfc added 12:42 - Jul 6 please sign him.
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blueherts added 12:46 - Jul 6 Another Nigel , like Cleghorn
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ITFC_Budapest added 13:14 - Jul 6 This is exactly the kind of player we need! Sign him up and good things will happen, come on ipswich don't f*** about, get him putting pen to paper now!
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cobbold_fanatic added 13:22 - Jul 6 would be a terrific signing, fingers crossed!
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