Town boss Mick McCarthy says he hasn’t had any managers contacting him regarding striker David McGoldrick, whose contract is up at the end of the season, although owner Marcus Evans has taken some calls from agents. Cardiff City have been strongly linked with a move for the 30-year-old, while TWTD understands Aston Villa are now showing interest in the Republic of Ireland international.
Unlike most Town players there is no option for a further season in McGoldrick’s contract and McCarthy admitted earlier in the window that he was an "obvious target” given his situation.
Cardiff and Birmingham were linked early on in the window, while Villa are also now showing significant interest with the Bluebirds still believed to be monitoring the situation. Fulham and Sheffield Wednesday have also been more tenuously mentioned in connection with the eight-goal frontman.
We understand Town would be willing to allow McGoldrick to move on if they received an acceptable bid with the former Forest man available on a free in the summer.
Asked whether there was any interest in McGoldrick, McCarthy said: "I’m interested in him. I think Marcus has had a number of calls but it’s all agents spoofing, just ringing round and trying to create a deal where there isn’t one as much as anything. I tell them all, tell the manager to ring me.
"Somebody said Birmingham might be interested. I said, ‘Well, that’s strange because Steve Cotterill’s a pal of mine’. I just picked the phone up and rang him about Stephen Gleeson: ‘Cotts, is he available?’. ‘Yes, we’ll let him go on loan’. ‘OK, I’ll come back to you when I see if we can do it.’
"That’s as simply as it was done. So, if there is anybody they better pick the phone up and ring me, and I haven’t had any calls.
"And I’m not looking for any calls and, of course, as close as [the window] gets to shutting, the less I’m looking to take any calls about him.
"So, I’m hoping not, but if they do we’ll just have to talk to them, see what they do.”
Given he evidently wants to keep McGoldrick, shouldn’t he persuade owner Marcus Evans to offer him a contract?
"Didz might want to leave with me!” McCarthy responded referencing his own contract situation.
But that would be the obvious thing to do to attempt to prevent him leaving on a free in the summer, wouldn’t it?
"But then we don’t know, we could leave hand in hand out of the golden gates here, couldn’t we?” McCarthy added.
The Blues boss dismissed claims that Town have told interested clubs that they would take £500,000 for McGoldrick.
"No, the agents always love to have a price because they can go to another club then and tell them, ‘I can get him out for £750,000’,” he said.
"And then they come back and it ends up £500,000 and they think they’ve done a good deal on him and get paid I suppose.”
McCarthy says he and his staff have potential replacements in mind should McGoldrick move on before Wednesday.
"No, we’ve all been sat doing nothing, we’ve not looked, we’ve not given it any consideration that he might leave at all," he joked when asked whether that was the case. "I’m a professional at this, I’ve been doing it for 25 years.
"Yes, we’ve been considered the fact that that might happen, so that’s why when we get injuries we can go and bring Cameron Carter-Vickers in, Stephen Gleeson in. Yes, we tend to work at it.”
The Town boss says he has no plans to make any further additions before Wednesday other than if someone were to be lost to injury or were to move on.
"Not unless we have any problems, which we haven’t had, and hopefully we’ll get some injured players back."
He says he's happy with his options up front, despite the Blues having scored fewer goals recently.
"I guess some fresh blood or impetus would help, who knows, but then are they going to come and get straight in the team? I don’t know," he reflected.
"I think the lads after 28 games, maybe they’ve just felt it a little bit. Maybe now we’re having games Saturday, Saturday, Saturday we can all be a little bit fresher. Let’s hope we are.
"We’ve done well with the players we’ve got, we’ve scored a lot of goals.”
McCarthy says there’s been no real interest in any of his squad with the window closing next Wednesday.
"No, I haven’t taken any calls,” he added. "Again, I’ve had an agent tell me that there’s a bit of interest in Kevin Bru.
"Kevin came to see me and, look, he’s been available on a free transfer since the end of last season.
"That’s still the case. But he’s still our player, I still expect a call from somebody if somebody wants to take him. And that might depend on whether Tom Adeyemi’s fit, Skusey’s fit, they both should be fine, Luke Hyam, he’s remained fit, that’s fine. But it would be dependent on any injuries.”