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Town Close to Signing Birmingham's Gleeson - Ipswich Town News

TWTD understands Town are closing in on the loan signing of Birmingham City midfielder Stephen Gleeson.

Speaking earlier today, Blues boss Mick McCarthy said he was hopeful of adding someone to his squad before Saturday’s game at Bolton and Gleeson is that player with the move set to be confirmed on Friday.

The 29-year-old is well-known to McCarthy having been at Wolves during his time as boss at Molineux.

Dubliner Gleeson played youth football with Cherry Orchard before joining Wolves in 2006.

Loan spells at Stockport (three times), Hereford and the MK Dons followed before he joined the Buckinghamshire side on a permanent basis in July 2009 having made only one League Cup start and three league sub appearances for Wolves.

After five years with MK, the 5ft 9in tall midfielder moved on to Birmingham in 2014.

This season Gleeson, who is out of contract at the end of the season, has made only seven appearances (five in the Championship) with his most recent first-team game in early December.

He has won four Republic of Ireland full caps, scoring once, in addition to appearances at U17, U18, U19 and U21 levels.

Meanwhile, reports claim Werder Bremen, Espanyol and Torino are keen to sign Town loanee Bersant Celina during the January window.

However, the Manchester City man leaving the Blues is unlikely with the season-long loan deal understood to be along the same lines as Tom Lawrence's last season which required the agreement of all three parties - the player and the two clubs - for it to be cut short.

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