Town boss Roy Keane is eyeing a move for QPR left-back Damien Delaney, according to our friends at LoftForWords.co.uk. The 27-year-old has been told he can leave Loftus Road after an 18-month spell in West London.
Delaney started his career with hometown club Cork City but moved on to Leicester in October 2000 and was with the Foxes during Town first team coach Tony Loughlan's spell working in their academy.
The 6ft 3in tall left-back, central defender or occasional midfielder made 11 senior appearances for the Foxes before following Peter Taylor out of the Walkers Stadium and to Hull City for £50,000 in October 2002, having been on loan spells at Stockport, Huddersfield and Mansfield.
Delaney was the last Hull player to score at Boothferry Park before their move to the KC Stadium and played alongside Jon Walters while with the Tigers. In 2003/04 he won all Hull's player of the year awards (while playing regularly at centre-half) as they won promotion from League Two, while his goal against Rochdale was voted the Tigers' Goal Of The Season.
In January 2008 Delaney moved to QPR in a deal worth around £600,000 plus top-ups potentially taking it into seven figures, signing a three-and-a-half-year deal.
Delaney, a highly-rated Gaelic footballer as a youngster, quickly impressed the Loftus Road faithful with marauding runs down the left and won himself a place in Giovanni Trapattoni's first Republic of Ireland side, making his debut against Serbia in May 2008 and winning his second, and so far final cap, later the same month in a friendly with Colombia.
His 2008/09 season was less successful, despite making 42 appearances under the innumerable managers employed at Loftus Road, and at the end of the season Delaney was one of five still-contracted players made available by the R's, who are likely to want a fee at around the £600,000 level they paid Hull.
Overall for QPR, Delaney has made 57 starts and two sub appearances, scoring three goals.
Town are very much in the market for a left-back with Ben Thatcher the only left-sided full-back at the club now that Dan Harding, Matt Richards and Kurt Robinson have been released. Additionally, further cover at the centre of the defence also appears needed with Iván Campo also leaving at the end of the season.
LoftForWords's profile of Delaney can be found here.