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Barnsley Reject £1m Town Bid Claim - Ipswich Town News

Town are reported to have had a £1 million bid for Barnsley forward Marley Watkins turned down.

According to Sky Sports News, the Tykes have rejected the Blues’ offer for the 25-year-old, who came on as a sub and scored and claimed an assist in Town’s 4-2 opening day win over the South Yorkshiremen at Portman Road.

Lewisham-born Watkins was brought up in Swansea and joined the youth set-up at his hometown club.

Watkins, who is 6ft 1in tall, moved on before making a senior appearance and broke into first-team football with Cheltenham before joining Bath City, initially on loan, and then Hereford United in 2012.

A year later he moved on to Inverness Caledonian Thistle, where he scored the opening goal in the 2-1 2015 Scottish Cup final win against Falkirk, before signing for Barnsley in the summer of 2015.

Watkins, whose grandfather was famous Welsh poet Vernon Watkins, who was close friends with Dylan Thomas, has another year left on his contract at Oakwell, where he has made 44 starts and four sub appearances, scoring nine goals.

Primarily a right-sided midfielder for much of his career, Watkins can also operate as a centre forward - where he is currently playing for Barnsley and where he previously impressed for Caley Thistle - and may well be viewed as someone who can play in that role with the Blues looking for a replacement for Daryl Murphy, who moved onto Newcastle at the weekend.

Watkins has previously been named on standby for Wales but without making it into a squad.

Town target Lukas Jutkiewicz's proposed move to Birmingham from Burnley, as reported earlier this evening, is believed to be a loan deal.

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