Leicester City are reported to have made an increased bid for Town striker David McGoldrick. The transfer window closes at 11pm this evening with the Foxes said to have made the new offer on Sunday, a first bid of an initial £6.5 million having been turned down late last week.
After Saturday's game at Derby, manager Mick McCarthy revealed that Town owner Marcus Evans wasn't keen to do the deal, then reportedly worth up to £8 million, but said talks between the clubs would continue over the weekend. According to The Sun, which broke the news of the first offer, Leicester have now made a new bid.
If a deal is agreed before today’s deadline McCarthy says he’ll initially look to the loan market to replace last season’s 16-goal top scorer before targeting more permanent additions in January.
"We’ve signed Conor Sammon and we got Murph and Kevin Bru and we’ll just have to see what we’ve got,” McCarthy told Radio Suffolk.
"And if we have to get some loans, as I keep saying, Premier League clubs will be willing to loan players out once they’ve got their squads together. We might have to do that.
"If that’s the case and it does eventually happen, come January there’ll be funds to do something else and build, and sometimes you have to do that.”
He is confident that owner Evans will make funds available to him if the deal does get done: "Absolutely.”
After the Foxes’ 1-1 draw with Arsenal yesterday, manager Nigel Pearson wouldn’t discuss specific targets, as is his usual policy until there is positive news on a deal.
On his plans for deadline day, Pearson told Radio Leicester: "We know the players that we’re trying to get and if we can get them, fine. If we can’t, we can’t and we’ll move on.”
Regarding young Premier League strikers who may be on McCarthy’s loan wish list if McGoldrick does move on, the only player of that profile previously linked this summer is 17-year-old Newcastle frontman Adam Armstrong.
Former loanee Jonny Williams may be amongst McCarthy's potential targets, depending on whether he's required by new Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock and if any other clubs are in for him.
One more senior player the Town manager could renew his interest in, either now or when the loan ‘window’ opens on September 8th, is Stephen Hunt’s brother Noel, who is out of favour at Leeds. We understand that McCarthy considered a move for the 31-year-old earlier in the summer.
Meanwhile, Palace, who were linked with Tommy Smith last week, are understood to have been eyeing Blues left-back Tyrone Mings. However, the Eagles are believed to be close to completing a deal to sign Tottenham left-back Zeki Fryers.
Elsewhere, ex-Blue Owen Garvan, who was training with the Town squad earlier in the summer, has been linked with a move from Selhurst Park to Bolton Wanderers where his former Eagles boss Dougie Freedman is now in charge.