TWTD understands that Burnley midfielder Dean Marney is amongst the many players on Blues boss Paul Jewell’s summer wish list. The Town manager is looking to add up to five more signings before the new season gets under way on Saturday 6th August, including a replacement for skipper David Norris, whose switch to Portsmouth was confirmed earlier today.
Marney, 27, started his career with Tottenham, during which time he went out on loan to Swindon, QPR, Gillingham and Norwich.
Having made only four starts and seven sub appearances for Spurs, scoring two goals, both in a 5-2 victory over Everton, the Barking-born player joined Hull City in July 2006 for an undisclosed fee believed to be around the £1 million mark.
After four years, 111 starts, 27 games from the bench, nine goals and a promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs with the Tigers, 6ft tall Marney moved to Burnley for a fee reported to be around £500,000 in May 2010. In his first season at Turf Moor he made 37 starts and played four games as a sub, scoring three goals.
A one-time England U21 cap, the box-to-box midfielder, who was previously linked with the Blues in 2007 when with Hull, has another two years remaining on his Burnley contract.
Meanwhile, Doncaster Rovers chairman John Ryan says striker Billy Sharp, the subject of a £2.3 million Town offer earlier in the summer, wouldn’t have joined the Blues even if they had persisted in their interest rather than switching their attention to Michael Chopra: "They wouldn’t have come back in for Billy anyway. Billy didn’t want to go to Ipswich.”
Elsewhere, Connor Wickham was again an unused sub as England’s U21s drew 0-0 with Ukraine in their second game at the UEFA European Championship in Denmark.