Town boss Roy Keane says he expects to have a busy day on the transfer front, but doesn’t expect to complete any deals before the weekend. Keane says he has turned down an offer for one of his players, in addition to his ongoing attempts to strengthen his squad.
Yesterday, Sunderland boss Steve Bruce confirmed that the Blues had been given permission to speak to Grant Leadbitter and Carlos Edwards. Keane says these deals and others still have a distance to progress, with personal terms understood to be a sticking point regarding Edwards in particular
Keane says no new signing is likely to be involved against Preston on Saturday: "There won’t be any signings today.
"We’re doing everything we can to try and make these deals happen and it’s been documented that one or two players have been down to see me and we’re hoping to speak to more players over the weekend. But there’s a long way to go on these deals. It can be hard work.
"Brucey’s come out and mentioned one or two players and I’ve spoken to one or two lads from Sunderland about maybe coming, but there’s a lot to do when you’re trying to get players out of the Premiership, in terms of the financial cost to the club and the desire — I want to find out if these players want to come and play for Ipswich. There’s a long, long way to go for these deals to be concluded.”
Keane says it’s not just a case of players coming in: "We had an offer for one of our players which we turned down. The offer was nowhere near what we thought that player was worth.
"There are so many deals at the club at the moment that are in the balance, in terms of players coming in and one or two players going out that it seems to change by the hour. It’s going to be an interesting day today.”
That offer may have been Doncaster Rovers firming up their interest in striker Jon Stead with manager Sean O’Driscoll confirming that he would be interested in signing the former Sheffield United and Huddersfield man yesterday.
Keane said he has heard nothing from Burnley regarding their reported interest in Owen Garvan and dismissed the claim earlier in the week that he had made a £7 million offer for four Sunderland players, Nyron Nosworthy and Daryl Murphy in addition to Leadbitter and Edwards.