Bruce Could Still Be Offered Deal - Ipswich Town News

Chief executive Derek Bowden says central defender Alex Bruce could yet be offered a contract by the Blues, despite no deal currently being on the table. The club and Bruce's agent have met on a number of occasions but so far there is no agreement on new terms.

Bowden told TWTD: ”No contract has been offered, that doesn't mean there won't be, but there's no contract offered at this point in time.

"We've had talks with his agent and with Alex and at the moment we haven't reached an agreement.”

Bruce, whose current deal is up in June, has been linked with a move away from Portman Road when the January transfer window opens, with Norwich City, Burnley, Preston, Fiorentina, Genoa and Napoli all reported to be interested in his signature.

Bowden says the Blues would look at offers received for Bruce and other players in a similar position: "We would have to take a view in January as to whether we offer a new contract or whether we consider an offer. That's no different to any other player who is out of contract in June 09 who doesn't have a new contract on offer.

So far though, there has been no firm interest in the Republic of Ireland international: "There's been gossiping, but there's been no enquiry and no approach at all and until there's an enquiry or an approach, there's nothing to talk about, it's just academic.”

Also out of contract next summer are the on-loan Dan Harding, Chris Casement, Dean Bowditch, Liam Trotter, Kurt Robinson, Matt Richards and Billy Clarke, as well as Richard Naylor, Tommy Miller, Shane Supple, Jai Reason and Ed Upson.

Bowden says he has not yet been contacted by any of the players' loan clubs: "Dan Harding's out at Southend, Matt Richards is down at Brighton, but we don't yet know whether they want to extend the loan periods or are interested in permanent deals.

”We'll probably know more in the first week of January. People keep their powder dry until the window opens. As it stands at the moment, there are no firm offers on the table for any of our players.”

Manager Jim Magilton recently made Iván Campo available for loan but Bowden says the Spaniard is still in the club's plans, at least for the moment: "At the moment he's a squad player, albeit in an enlarged squad, but we'll review it in January.

”We'll review quite a few things in January. We've another month to go and a few more games to play and we'll consider it after the Christmas period's over.

"We'll meet with Jim then. We talk every day anyway and we have regular review meetings with Marcus, certainly when it comes to spending money or moving players out.

"We have a meeting with Marcus scheduled for next week, we'll have another one very early in January, if not before, and we'll conclude our January strategy then.

"Jim will get feedback from Bryan Klug, Steve Foley and the rest of the coaching staff, and scouts Simon Hunt and Steve McCall, and then Jim, Marcus and myself will sit down and figure out what we're going to do.”

The chief executive says it is likely there will be more players on the way out of Portman Road than on the way in during January: "We've got a very large squad and most people accept that it's too large and therefore, hopefully, there will be players moving out for the good of the team. And maybe one or two coming in.

”If you look at it coldly, you would assume there would be more players going out than coming in, simply by virtue of the number of players that we've got.”

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