Spanish striker Pablo Couñago could add his name to the list of summer departures before the end of the August transer window. Town boss Joe Royle admits that the club would have to listen to attractive bids coming for the club's highest-paid player.

Royle said: "I wouldn't deny that if the right bid came in we would have to listen."

"We have trimmed down in other areas and Pablo's wage is not crippling us the way it could have done.

"But we are trying to go forward and there is no disguising the fact that we would have to listen to offers for Pablo - and he knows that.

"Equally, though, if he is here for the start of the season he will be a massive asset to us. He has come back looking leaner and is definitely
fitter than he was at this stage last year."

Couñago has a year left on the contract signed in the summer of 2001 when he joined on a Bosman from Celta Vigo in Spain.

Town's moneymen are keen to offload his wage and will want to get a fee for the frontman who will be able to leave Portman Road on another Bosman next summer.

Over the last year or so there have been a number of reports linking the 25-year-old with a return home but none of late.

Royle is also looking at bringing in new faces -both permanent signings and loans - but is making his choices carefully: "I will be bringing in at least one, possibly two, new players and there is also the possibility of loan signings.

"We have lost bodies and when we start our pre-season programme at Peterborough on Saturday it will be a struggle to field two teams of
professionals.

"But I don't want to bring players in just for the sake of it. Any signings have to be exactly right for what I want."

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