Everton are reportedly set to make a January move for Town defender Adam Webster.
According to the Daily Mirror, the Toffees are ready to test the Blues’ resolve with a £4 million offer for the 21-year-old.
Webster, who joined Town from Portsmouth in the summer for £700,000 plus Matt Clarke, who moved in the opposite direction, is also understood to be interesting Sunderland.
Blues boss Mick McCarthy has said the former England U18 and U19 international is a Premier League player of the future on a number of occasions, but speaking at Thursday's press conference was confident that he would be able to keep hold of his most coveted players, owner Marcus Evans having previously resisted big offers for key men such as Leicester's £7 million bid for David McGoldrick in the summer of 2014.
An offer of £4 million is very unlikely to even be considered in the current market.
"They’re all under contract but we’ve seen that before with players under contract,” McCarthy said.
"I’m not sat here worried about losing them, I’m sat here more concerned about getting some fresh faces in that would provide a spark and an impetus for us so we could push forward.”
Meanwhile, academy head of recruitment Steve McGavin and coach Scott Mitchell have been among a number of Town representatives holding a week-long training camp at the Clyde Best Centre of Excellence in Bermuda and also watching games in the British Overseas Territory.
"Like anywhere in the world there is talent and we’ve identified that,” McGavin told Bermuda’s Royal Gazette.
"It’s about developing relationships, a trust element when people know what we’re doing, and there may be opportunities in the future for boys from the island.
"It’s only been after coming here that I realised how many [Bermudian] boys have been proactive in terms of going to the United Kingdom, some of them we’ve played against for other teams.”
Elsewhere, former Town winger Alex Henshall has joined Vanarama National League South side Margate having left Kilmarnock at the end of last season. The 22-year-old’s Blues contract was settled by mutual consent in January.