Town boss Paul Jewell has confirmed that he has made an offer for a striker in addition to Michael Chopra, who signed from Cardiff for £1.5 million last week. The Blues manager is keen to add a different striking option to his squad.
Jewell believes he already has some decent frontmen but says he needs someone to complement them: "We’ve got some good strikers at the club — Connor Wickham, Jason Scotland, Tamás Priskin and Michael Chopra — but I still want another one to go and play alongside one of them.
"At the back end of last season we didn’t have quality competition for places. We had plenty of numbers but the quality was lacking a little bit.
"I have made an offer for a striker and there are two or three things that are going on and which, luckily, have been kept quiet.”
It's understood that a player was at Portman Road for talks yesterday with reports last night linking Blackburn’s Jason Roberts, although the Grenada international subsequently tweeted that he is still in the Caribbean and hasn’t spoken to Town.
Elsewhere, reports in Ireland have linked the Blues with Reading frontman Noel Hunt with Portsmouth and West Ham also understood to be showing interest, although the 27-year-old may have been seen as an alternative addition prior to Chopra’s signing last week.
Sheffield United’s Ched Evans also continues to be linked, while another of Jewell’s Wigan strikers, Nathan Ellington, is also frequently a rumoured potential target and was claimed to have been the player at Portman Road on the TWTD Message Board yesterday. The 29-year-old is a free agent having been released by Watford after ending last season on loan at Preston.
One striker who won’t be joining Town is Doncaster's Billy Sharp with Jewell no longer targeting the 25-year-old: "We made an offer for him that was rejected and they made it public, which is their prerogative.
"Negotiations were ongoing but once we knew Michael Chopra was available we quickly changed our target. I think Michael’s as good as you will get in the Championship.”
Sharp was part of a £2.6 million joint-offer along with midfielder James Coppinger, who Jewell confirms he is still looking to land: "We are still pursuing one of those players. We’re after a number of players, everybody knows that and these things take time.
"It’s been a most frustrating summer. I don’t feel as if I’ve had a holiday because I’ve never been off the phone, I’ve been travelling up and down the country meeting players and meeting agents and it’s been very hard work and very frustrating.”
Chopra was Jewell’s first transfer success of the summer and is someone his new manager believes is a top player in this division: "He’s proven at Championship level and he’s one that every Championship manager or supporter would want to have in their team. We’re delighted to have him.
"When we heard he might be available we moved very quickly. It took a bit of time to dot the is and cross the ts but I am sure it will be worth all the hard work that went into it.”
The Liverpudlian feels Chopra will benefit from the fresh start at a new club: "We all know he’s had things off the pitch in the past.
"I spoke to him at length about that and he’s really focused and looking forward to just getting his head down and scoring goals for us and helping us to try to be successful.”
Since then released Reading defender Ivar Ingimarsson has agreed to sign a one-year deal and Jewell, who wants to add up to seven players to his squad this summer, is hoping to have made more additions before pre-season starts on June 29th and then further signings by the time the new season gets going: "Hopefully come August 6th, all the hard work we’re doing behind the scenes now will come to fruition and we’ll have players in our team that are better equipped to try and mount a promotion challenge.”