Town are close to signing striker Frank Nouble from Wolves. The 21-year-old, who is set to sign a contract until the summer of 2014, has been at Portman Road for a medical this morning, a fee having been agreed.

The 6ft 3in tall Londoner began his career with Chelsea’s youth set-up before joining West Ham in 2009.

While with the Hammers, he spent spells on loan at West Brom, Swindon, Swansea, Barnsley, Charlton, Gillingham and Barnsley again.

England U17 and U19 international - who also qualifies for the Ivory Coast via his parents - made only six starts and 13 sub appearances while at Upton Park, scoring just the one senior goal.

In the summer he moved on a free transfer to Wolves, signing a two-year deal, but has made only two sub appearances in the Championship, in addition to one start, two games from the bench and one goal in the Capital One Cup.

Nouble would appear to be a direct replacement for former loanee Tyrone Barnett, whose spell from Peterborough was cut short by a knee injury, providing competition for Daryl Murphy.

Manager Mick McCarthy added two more strikers - Aaron Mclean and David McGoldrick - to his squad last week and on Saturday confirmed that he was still chasing ex-loanee DJ Campbell, who went back to QPR last week.

The Blues would now appear to have a surfeit of frontmen with Nathan Ellington having returned to the club yesterday after his loan from Scunthorpe and Murphy, Michael Chopra, Jason Scotland, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas - who McCarthy views as primarily a striker - Ronan Murray and the injured Paul Taylor already at Portman Road.

Photo: Action Images

hampstead_blue added 11:30 - Jan 8 Building for next season. I like it!
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MooseJuice added 11:31 - Jan 8 Apparently his middle name is 'Herman'. That can only be a good thing.
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rosseden added 11:36 - Jan 8 i would take this guy over ebanks blake for sure.......
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bluelady added 11:42 - Jan 8 End of Jet I suspect...lets hope mick brings out best in him, clearly has a good pedigree as a youth player
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Bluetone added 11:43 - Jan 8 We'll soon have more strikers than Swan Vesta.
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MoggaOg added 11:44 - Jan 8 Well if nothing else our formation will be attacking - for those saying MM only plays 4-4-2, I don't think so - a more unorthodox 2-2-6 looks likely. COYB
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PYBlue added 11:52 - Jan 8 zzz another poor signing who will be released in a year
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ArnieMsBigToe added 11:53 - Jan 8 Phew!! I thought it said Frank Bruno!!
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petersongoal added 11:54 - Jan 8 I think this pretty much ends any link to DJ, while probably ending the tenures of Ellington and Scotland. Either that or we'll be playing 2-2-6 for the rest of the season.
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NSL added 12:05 - Jan 8 Great - We need someone as tall as possible to reach some of Martin's crosses!
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bedsitfc added 12:05 - Jan 8 Ellington released, Scotland loan with view of sale and Chopra sold.
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oldelsworthyfan added 12:06 - Jan 8 Probably one for next season, but he looks pretty scary to me! MM knows what he's doing.
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algarvefan added 12:10 - Jan 8 NSL he's not 7' 9"
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greentractorboy added 12:23 - Jan 8 bloody hell what to going to play 4-0-6 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Mark added 12:25 - Jan 8 "...Frank has stature, presence, burning pace and wants to score goals..." Brendan Rogers, 2010. It is an exciting signing I think, a young striker with pace and potential. Suddenly we do have lots of attacking options, which is what other clubs always have but we haven't for years. Hopefully the tranfer fee is very small, as Wolves got him for free and he only made two league appearances for them.

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prickettboy3 added 12:43 - Jan 8 Everyone would be moaning if we released 3 Strikers first, so MM is bringing in the replacements BEFORE releasing the "dead wood". Scotland (average), Ellington (poor) and Murray (poor + inexperienced) are not what we need to get out of this league. They will be released/sold now and we also don't know what's going to happen with Chopra with his Court case pending.......

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truthhurts added 12:46 - Jan 8 Good to see we are targetting younger players and it be interesting to see if this particular one works out or not. The other 2 new strikers showed promise against Villa. On that note Chopra was very good. Created our goal and never let their backline settle. Anyone who was there would (should) have agreed with that. All we need now is a creatibe midfielder to supply these strikers. BOYD FOR GOD'S SAKE

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planetblue_2011 added 12:46 - Jan 8 Yes come on things are looking up with our striking options. I reckon Scotland & Ellington will be going!! Good height - good age. COYB
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MattinLondon added 12:52 - Jan 8 Scotland, Ellington and Ronin Murphy will leave with Chropa in tow if he doesn't start scoring. Think JET will be given another chance. Anyone know if the non-league winger we had on trial is still at Town?
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buryblue77 added 12:53 - Jan 8 I think this means the chase for Campbell has finished and possibly (hopefully) the end for Chopra too. Thinking about the striking options we have including Chopra, Scotland and Ellington MM clearly doesn't fancy any of them in his starting line up and a good compliment of strikers is essential, it means if one stops firing there's always someone else waiting to come in, keeps them all sharp. I think it's all coming together nicely now, the question has to be asked why did PJ and to a certain extent Keane fail to land targets which such regularity but MM seems to get players in and quickly.

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Edmunds5 added 12:55 - Jan 8 Reminds me a bit of Nile Ranger on the few times I have seen him, seems to have all the attributes but its never quite worked out as yet. Still young though and hopefully he can come here and settle down and get on with his career, He joined Wolves at a difficult time and has hardly had a chance this season and being constantly loaned out doesn't really help a player. Perhaps a fresh start, a different environment and working under Mick will make us see the best of him.

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muccletonjoe added 13:06 - Jan 8 If we are signing him permanently I am far from happy , there are proven goalscorers in the lower leagues we could have gone for . Not impresed with mm signings to date
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TractorRoyNo1 added 13:14 - Jan 8 can we melt this lot down and make one quality player out of. the bits?
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TrumptonBlue added 13:21 - Jan 8 This'll be our 22nd new signing since the end of last season. Blimey.
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Pettitt10 added 13:31 - Jan 8 Chopra will stay, JET, Ellington and possibly Scotland could move on.
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