Town boss Mick McCarthy says the Blues are determined to hang on to their best players, including highly-rated young midfielder Andre Dozzell, but admits that you can never absolutely rule out someone moving on.

“It’s impossible that, I heard [Everton’s Romelu] Lukaku say he’s going and he’s under contract,” McCarthy reflected. “Nobody’s doing that here but people can be under contract and it still happens.”

Dozzell, 16, is understood to be interesting the likes of Arsenal, Spurs and West Ham, while Liverpool were reported to have started talks regarding the England U17 international earlier in the week, a claim McCarthy said he knew nothing about on Thursday.

His father Jason recently told TWTD that he believes Portman Road is the best place for his son, who travelled with the first-team squad for today's game at Sheffield Wednesday, at this stage of his career.

McCarthy added: “What I would say is that we don’t want to lose our best players, of any sort. And that’s been proven by [owner] Marcus [Evans] when Leicester were all over David McGoldrick [in the summer of 2014] and at the start of this season when there were teams all over Murph, bidding five, six, seven million quid.

“People wonder sometimes about the investment in players coming in, but what Marcus has always done is supported and made sure we kept our best players. That’ll be the case again.”

Dozzell is currently in the first year of a two-year scholarship and has agreed a two-year professional deal which will be formalised when he turns 16 on May 2nd.

While today’s opponents Sheffield Wednesday are amongst a number of clubs to have spent big this season, and added Aiden McGeady on loan from Everton and Gary Hooper on a permanent basis from Norwich in January, Town have continued to operate more frugally, although this year’s wage bill rose 15 per cent on last season and is up 25 per cent on the previous campaign.

McCarthy says there’s no point in him feeling envious of the greater resources available to other managers: “We’re not doing it so there’s no real point. I think all you end up doing is being bitter and twisted about it and I still maintain that if I have a role to do at the club within certain parameters, I go and do it.

“That’s exactly what I do and I do it to the best of my ability and generally do it particularly well, it’s just we’ve been having a tough time recently and all these other things will be thrown up into the mix yet again.”

He says discussions regarding the budget for next season will take place with owner Marcus Evans in the summer: “Absolutely, we can’t do anything about it now, so there’s no reason to be discussing it.”

Will he be citing the success of bigger spenders such as the Owls, Derby and Middlesbrough when he holds those talks?

“I would imagine that I don’t need to, Marcus is a very intelligent, very bright man,” he continued. “I don’t think he’ll need me to be underlining or putting anyone up as an example.

“And, of course, next season, if we’re going to be in this league, we’re going to have Newcastle, Sunderland and Aston Villa or Norwich, if Sunderland beat them they’ve got a chance of being caught but it’s looking pretty unlikely, I have to be honest. It’s going to get harder rather than easier.”

Photo: Action Images

jas0999 added 06:40 - Apr 16 Someone bid £7M for Murphy ...wow! Although I'd have been disappointed to see him leave, that was a very good offer.
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Uhlenbeek added 07:20 - Apr 16 Agreed Jas, for a player at the end of his career who has never previously scored more than 15 in a season, I would have snapped over 5 million off anyones hands...no chance it would have been reinvested so no loss there though
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BlueKush added 07:33 - Apr 16 If we sell Bishop we're a bunch of muppets.
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muccletonjoe added 07:38 - Apr 16 Lets hope its not naarrich coming down. It never turns out well for us.
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prebsa added 08:13 - Apr 16 If someone bid 7mil for Murphy the we were stupid not to take it. Ridiculous money for someone the wrong side of 30 who would never replicate last seasons form!
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RegencyBlue added 08:44 - Apr 16 I would like to think discussions about next season's transfer budget would take place now rather than wait for the summer. We need a proper plan rather than stumble through another transfer window picking up other teams cast offs. Reading between the lines though looks like more of the same next season unfortunately!
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Penguinblue added 08:46 - Apr 16 Here's hoping for a better performance this afternoon - any chance of some football from the Blues? No we don't want to lose any of our young players but we desperately need to lose our 'manager' and some of his favourites so we can progress. Unfortunately no one creative or young has much chance with hoofball man. Notice how MM keeps telling us how good a job he has done done? OK you did what you can do, now please go. Not a great idea to bring the McGoldrick business up again. You might put him back into a sulk as he comes out of his annual hibernation (shame for McG that he was not allowed to go, anyone would have been gutted) COYB McCarthy OUT

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michaeldownunder added 09:04 - Apr 16 When teams bid 7 mill for a player they don't just hand over a cheque, normaly it's paid over two/three years. Also could have clauses eg no. of games played, goals scored etc such could be the case for Murphy and Mc I don't know what was offered, if there was an offer, for the players. I myself knowing their history of goals/injury would have sold both but can you imagine the meltdown from the fans.

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BanksterDebtSlave added 09:05 - Apr 16 Surely it would have made sense to talk about transfer funds before signing his own contract extension.
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superblue70 added 09:42 - Apr 16 Don't care what the budget is,it shouldn't stop you from passing a football on the grass that costs nothing. My god this is getting more boring by the day.
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phillo added 09:45 - Apr 16 Agree BanksterDebtSlave Mick has never really "moaned" about budget in the whole time he's been here but I'm glad you've also noticed that since things have started going b***s up recently he's started questioning things ...... why did he sign a new contract then if he was this "worried" about it ? Also is it true we were offered £7m for Murphy ? That seems an amazing amount for a 30+ year old ...... why would we not look at it ? Sadly I have got to a point that I am not sure I 100% believe what Mick says anymore ....

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brittaniaman added 09:53 - Apr 16 Keeping Murphy and McGoldrick did not work out to well for us this season did it Mick ??????
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happybeingblue added 09:53 - Apr 16 thing is any sale will go into evans coffers so we will not benefit as fans
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silkcutblue added 10:02 - Apr 16 Marcus has always supported and made sure we kept our best players (think not )
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john151 added 10:08 - Apr 16 Keep our best players....... Cresswell.... Mings???????
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Gcon added 10:23 - Apr 16 Mark my words - This story about the manager wanting to hang on to our 16 year-old star of the future will draw far less attention than the one about the Sun loosely linking a 33 year-old player to the club, which will be used relentlessly over the course of the day as an opportunity to berate the manager by a certain section of our beloved 'supporters'.
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Geoff added 10:25 - Apr 16 It is okay to sell a good player now and then as we always have but the money has to to be reinvested by buying good players. When Kieron Dyer was sold we went out and bought Marcus Stewart now all we do is sell and bring in old players and loans this is a recipe for failure.I think the club are now happy to stay in the championship so no ambition.
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alfromcol added 11:04 - Apr 16 I may well be wrong, but I think Sears will be gone by the start of next season. He is a class above most in the squad, but constantly being played out of position, he very rarely gets on the score sheet. He won't want another season of having to backtrack to the edge of his own penalty area just to get the ball and having to continually chase down the hoof-balls.
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Woodbridgian added 11:41 - Apr 16 "but what Marcus has always done is supported and made sure we kept our best players" This article must be 16 days late should of gone out on the !st April
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BrettenhamBlue added 13:43 - Apr 16 Alfromcol Sears and Bialkowski will be the two first team players to leave. Like so many others have said, we need about 5-6 million to balance the books and these two players will seal the deal. Bet Mick wishes he had sold either Mcgoldrick in 2014 or Murphy in 2015. If he had we would not be needing to sell now. That's unless we get a 6 million offer for Giles Coke from Norwich. You never know, might just happen.

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TimmyH added 13:52 - Apr 16 I bet Evans is mortified now he didn't sell McG or Murphy with those offers and how they've played (or lack of playing) - I certainly don't think you'd get more than £1M for either player at this time. In hindsight the majority of those offers (if we did sell them) the money would have gone back into Evans pocket.
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Xatticus added 16:31 - Apr 16 Mick has done a decent job of finding talent considering the restrictions he has operated under, but there are significant limitations to what can be accomplished without some funding. We have generated significant revenue in the transfer market over the last several years, and none of it has gone back out to replenish the roster. Mick can try to portray ME in any manner that he wishes, but it is really difficult for fans to believe that he is anything but indifferent about taking this club forward.

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