Scunthorpe chairman Peter Swann has revealed that his club has turned down a Town bid for left-back Conor Townsend, who emerged as a Blues target over the weekend.
Reports on Saturday claimed that the Iron were preparing themselves for a £400,000 offer for Townsend from Town, having previously rebuffed a £250,000 bid from Hull City. West Brom were also linked.
The League One club are said to want £600,000 for the 25-year-old, who had two spells on loan at Grimsby playing for Blues boss Paul Hurst.
"We’ve had a couple of bids from a couple of clubs and they’ve not reached the valuation we have for Conor,” Swann told BBC Radio Humberside.
"He’s with us and will remain with us. We’re treating the whole situation as professionally as we can. I’ve rejected [Hull City’s] offer. Ipswich put a bid in and I’ve knocked that back as well.”
Commenting further on the bids, he added: "[They were] rubbish. There’s a lot of teams wanting players cheap out there and I don’t think that’s fair for clubs like us who’ve taken chances on players.
"If the right deal comes for any of our players we have to consider it. It has to be the right offer and we’ve not had that at the moment.”
Townsend came through the youth system at local club Hull and had spells on loan at Chesterfield, Carlisle (twice), Scunthorpe and Dundee United in addition to his two stints with the Mariners working under Hurst while a Tigers player.
He left the KC Stadium to move to Glanford Park on a permanent basis on a free transfer in January 2016.
It's understood that Hull would receive 40 per cent of any transfer fee the Iron would receive should a club other than the Tigers win the chase for Townsend's signature.
While on his first loan with Grimsby under Hurst, Townsend was named the Lincolnshire club’s Young Player of the Year.