Tranmere boss Les Parry has revealed that Town have increased their compensation offer for out-of-contract left-back Aaron Cresswell, but are still short of the League One’s side’s valuation. Yesterday, TWTD revealed that the Blues had won the race to sign the 21-year-old, who could put pen to paper on what we understand is a three-year deal at Portman Road as soon as today.
Parry says Rovers are resigned to losing Cresswell: "Aaron is out of contract with as from July 1st, so he can do what he wants. He can go and sign for another club.
"Obviously there will be a compensation fee involved but he does not need to come back to us now. It’s completely up to him.
"We have declined compensation offers from two Championship clubs for Aaron and Ipswich have just increased theirs. But it is still a long way short of what we expect.
"He can go there if he wants to and they would just go to a tribunal for the compensation fee. The other possibility is he would go abroad and then we would get nothing.”
The compensation is due because the Liverpudlian is under 24 years of age with a new offer having been on the table at Tranmere.
Cresswell made 71 starts and nine sub appearances for Rovers, scoring six goals, having come through the youth system at Prenton Park.
A set piece specialist and a tough-tackler, the 5ft 7in tall full-back likes to get forward and also played on the left of midfield when progressing through the ranks at Tranmere.
Meanwhile, new signing Nathan Ellington is looking forward to getting his Town career under way, with pre-season training at Playford Road beginning this morning. The 29-year-old frontman tweeted last night: "Day one at Ipswich tomorrow, can't wait to get started! Whoo hoooo! Football season again: gotta love it!”
Elsewhere, exiting striker Connor Wickham has tweeted his thanks to all at Portman Road having completed his move to Sunderland earlier in the week: "Thank you to everybody who has supported my move to Sunderland. I’m sad to leave such a great club, and want to thank every involved at ITFC.”
The 18-year-old is now off on holiday having spent much of the summer with the England U21 squad at the UEFA European Championship in Denmark.