Town boss Mick McCarthy says he would be surprised if there weren't clubs interested in Blues striker David McGoldrick. Sheffield Wednesday are amongst a number of Championship sides understood to be eyeing McGoldrick.
Dutch club FC Twente are also keen on the Republic of Ireland international, who is contracted for another two seasons, while a Spanish report linked Segunda División side CD Lugo last night, although neither side would appear to be in a financial position to make a move for the 28-year-old.
Asked whether there is any interest in McGoldrick, McCarthy said: "Probably, I haven’t heard anything. If there isn’t any interest I’d be surprised, he’s a good player.”
He added: "To be fair to us, we’ve not seen the best of him over the last couple of seasons because of injury.
"So I’d like to see that this year with us. I don’t want to see him going anywhere else.
"But I’m damned sure there’s somebody interested in him, I don’t know who they are if that’s the case.”
Having chopped and changed his four-man strike force - McGoldrick, Daryl Murphy, Brett Pitman and Freddie Sears - throughout last season, McCarthy says it’s up to his frontmen to establish themselves as regular starters in the season to come.
"It’s up to them to nail it down,” he continued. "I didn’t mix and match it because I wanted to, I mixed and matched it because perhaps we weren’t [scoring regularly enough].
"I wouldn’t have mixed and matched the year before when Murph scored 27 and when Didzy was flying. That was the team, although we didn’t have as many strikers of his quality. But of they’re scoring them and playing well, then they’ll stay in the team.”
While his quartet of strikers will be expected to net many of Town’s goals in 2016/17, McCarthy says he wants to see more from elsewhere in his squad.
"Midfield players need to contribute, certainly,” he said. "I think if Bish stays fit I’m sure he’ll score and he certainly creates them. Kevin Bru’s got to contribute, we’ve got to have more goals from them.
"The defenders have contributed over the piece, it’s midfield players I would say who have got to start contributing a bit more.”
Like McGoldrick, Teddy Bishop returned to action at the end of last season after missing much of the campaign through injury and looks a much more physically strong player than he did during his breakthrough 2014/15 season.
"That’s the benefit of being injured, you spend 16 months in the gym!" the Town boss added. "That’s your rehab. There’s not a lot you can really do, you end up being on a gym programme.
"And he’s better for it. He’s a good athlete now. Hopefully he’ll be more durable because of it, that’s the main thing.”
Returning to the squad having been an outcast for the last two seasons is winger Cameron Stewart, who McCarthy has confirmed is very much part of his plans.
What does the Blues manager believe has led to the 25-year-old’s improved attitude this summer? "I hope I’ve had some effect on him. I didn’t put him in the squad last year, he wasn’t in the team photograph. He’s been out on loan, he came back, he wasn’t fully fit. That’s down to him.
"And I would have thought me, maybe his girlfriend, maybe his advisors or maybe he’s just getting older and the penny’s dropped.
"He’s got something, Cameron, there’s no doubt. He put two great crosses in the other night. It’s up to him to stay that way and if he does, then I’ll keep him around, I’ll have him in the squad and I’ll make the best use of him.”
Reflecting on players such as McGoldrick, Bishop and 17-year-old Andre Dozzell, McCarthy says he has some exciting talent at his disposal, as long as they avoid injuries.
"I have but they have to be fit,” he added. "I can’t do anything if they’re sat in the physio room being treated for hamstrings, knees, backs, groins, calves, injuries, that’s an impossibility. If these lads are fit, then you can rest assured that they’ll be playing. The best players will play.”
The Town boss admits his side - who finished seventh in the Championship, missing out on the play-offs by four points - was under par towards the end of last season, particularly at home, but says they were approaching games just as they had a year beforehand when they were sixth in the table.
"I would just say that we didn’t play any differently at the back end of last season than we did at the back end of the season before when we got to the play-offs. Maybe we just weren’t as good.”
He says the Blues will be looking to start the season positively when they take on Barnsley at Portman Road on Saturday 6th August.
"That’s never changed, I’ve tried to do that every year I’ve been here and I think every year we have, to be fair, we’ve set off really well,” McCarthy continued.
"We lost some really key, influential players last year in Didz and Murph and Ryan Fraser and Bish.
"I don’t know anybody else with a squad like mine that would have coped and even finished seventh with it.
"There was a lot to be proud of as well, even having lost [out on the play-offs]. Had we kept them fit I think we might have got the top six.”