Town, West Brom and Burnley are involved a battle to sign 20-year-old Australian keeper Mat Ryan, according to reports in one of this morning’s tabloids. However, TWTD understands that while the Blues did watch the highly-rated Central Coast Mariners youngster in action earlier this summer, they have decided not to take their interest any further.
The Blues took a look at Ryan, who is 6ft ½in tall, on the recommendation of a TWTD reader based in Australia but having seen him in action in a number of games are not currently pursuing the U23 international, although will monitor his progress.
Born in Sydney, Ryan, who has already been included in a full Socceroos squad, played youth football with local clubs Plumpton/Oakhurst SC and Blacktown City before joining A-League side the Mariners in 2009.
Burnley appear to head the chase for Ryan with the Clarets having asked him over for a trial next week, although that's yet to be confirmed. The keeper's management are said to want him to visit Town, West Brom and Bristol City for similar spells.
The Blues are very much in the hunt for a new number one this summer but Paul Jewell is after a more experienced man, having had former Manchester United man Tomasz Kuszczak at the top of his wish list until the Pole joined Brighton.
Jewell is also believed to favour a keeper taller than Ryan with Watford’s 6ft 4in tall Scott Loach understood to have been the subject of an enquiry.
The Blues have also been mentioned in connection with a number of other keepers this summer, amongst them Birmingham's Colin Doyle, who is now expected to stay at St Andrew’s with Town sources having played down the Blues’ interest in any case, ex-Aston Villa man Brad Guzan, who is available on a free transfer and is understood to be a Hull City target, and QPR's Paddy Kenny, who is expected to be reunited with Neil Warnock at Leeds.
Manchester United's Ben Amos was linked with a possible loan, while 23-year-old Tottenham man David Button, who was at Portman Road with Barnsley last season, could well be available on a similar basis and will be well-known to Bryan Klug from his time working at White Hart Lane.
Third-choice Bayern Munich keeper Maximilian Riedmüller is understood to be set to spend time on trial with the Blues in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, Derby striker Steve Davies is reported to have confirmed that Town are amongst his options having confirmed he's leaving Pride Park to move to a club nearer to London earlier this week.
Davies, 24, has long been tipped for a move to Portman Road this summer with some Derby websites having been claiming it's all but a done deal since early May.
Speaking earlier in the week, Rams boss Nigel Clough said his club were yet to receive a formal offer for Davies: "We haven't had any written offers but we've had clubs saying 'we can give you this for him', and we've just said 'it's not enough at the moment'. We will hang fire and see what happens in the next few weeks."