Town boss Mick McCarthy has confirmed that Leicester City have made a bid for Blues striker David McGoldrick, but says owner Marcus Evans isn’t keen to do the deal.
"Yes, they have bid,” he confirmed after the Blues’ 1-1 draw at Derby, which McGoldrick missed due to what McCarthy says was a genuine injury.
"He did actually have a dead leg, whether anybody believes me or not. Had it been the cup final at Wembley I think we probably we would have nursed him through that one. But I’m of a mind that you need everybody 100 per cent, physically and mentally.”
He says the decision will be owner Evans’s and not his: "If one does go, that won’t be down to me that will be down to what Leicester are bidding and what Marcus decides is the right [price].
"Let me tell you, Marcus doesn’t want it to happen, but sometimes… it’s not unstoppable because Marcus, if he wanted to stop it then he could, that’s for sure.
"But then I’m always of a mind that you need players of 100 per cent playing with you all the time and, I have to be honest, I think if David had been playing today and got injured and there was then no chance of it happening, it would have been nice for us because we would have been keeping him. But if it was going to happen, he’d never forgive himself, and neither would I.”
Asked whether the potential move had turned McGoldrick’s head, he added: "Of course it has! A Premier League club comes in for you, it’s near your home, you can go back and live in your own house, there’ll be more money. It would distract me as well.
"I’m not worried about that, of course it does, there’s no point in saying it hasn’t. But he did have a knock, he got knocked on Thursday.
"But, as I say if it was a matter of him walking out at Wembley on cup final day I’m sure we would have nursed him.”
He admits McGoldrick’s exit on top of Aaron Cresswell having moved on would be a big blow: "It would be a right kick in the bollocks, but I’ll let the market forces and Marcus deal with all that and [whether] Leicester want to keep pushing and see what they do.”
Earlier in the summer Ross McCormack moved from Leeds to Fulham for £11 million and Leonardo Ulloa joined Leicester from Brighton for £8 million, the same as the reported fee offered for McGoldrick.
McCarthy believes McGoldrick is the best of the three: "Let me tell you, I think he’s better than all of them, I do.
"All right, he didn’t get 28 goals [unlike McCormack] , he got 16 but he missed more than two months of the season. He was outstanding for us.
"If that’s the market, that’s the market and I think people have to pay accordingly or it doesn’t happen.”
If the deal was done would he look to replace the 26-year-old? "I’m cool with what I’ve got there today.
"Big Frank came on, people might say ‘why did he play instead of Balint’, well because he came on wide right and he can do that job, that’s why that happened.”
Like Evans, McCarthy doesn’t want McGoldrick to move on, but says he is aware of the way things work in football.
"He doesn’t want to do it and neither do I. I don’t want to lose him physically, but I’d hate to lose him emotionally for a long time.
"I have to be honest and if it was me in that position, I’d be putting my boots on every Saturday with a whole load of resentment and a whole load of CBA - Can’t Be Arsed - for a little bit of a while.
"That’s not what I want, although I know Didz has got huge respect for me and the club, and I have for him. But it can materialise that.”
He says he's not had the type of conversation with McGoldrick where has indicated that he wants to go: "I haven’t had that discussion with him. He knows [the offer]’s there. If it turns out being the right thing as it was with Cressy, then maybe it has to happen.”
The Town boss says he’s unsure whether the deal will go through as things stand: "I don’t know, Marcus doesn’t want him to go.”
He added: "I give pragmatic and honest reasons. I could sit here and waffle and give you a load of bollocks and sit here and tell you whatever I want to lie about. I’m not going to do that.
"I know the way football works, so you can all write whatever you like about what I’ve said, I’m finished on that, but you know the scenario.
"Big boys come and throw a big cheque at it and sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t.”