Blues boss Paul Hurst says Derby are still to reach Town’s valuation for striker Martyn Waghorn despite having joined Sheffield United in making a bid but admits that all players have their price.
The Rams are understood to have offered the Blues a fee which ultimately could total £8 million after clauses but with the initial sum only £5 million.
Sheffield United, who have since ruled themselves out of the race, made an offer of approaching £5 million - presumably also including some further clauses - three weeks ago which was flatly turned down by the Blues.
"There have been bids, not only from [Derby], Sheffield United made a bid but unless anything’s changed that I haven’t been made aware of, nothing’s been at the values which I’ve seen reported and nothing’s at a value that I think can make us seriously consider that,” Hurst said following today’s Open Day at Portman Road.
"Maybe people would say that I shouldn’t say that as a manager, but I’m not stupid, everyone has a price. But at the same time, I don’t think we’re there yet, so there’s not anything to really consider.
"It’s a difficult situation, there’s no getting away from that, it’s not ideal, for the player, the football club, for me as manager, but it is football and we know it happens.
"At the minute, my advice to Martyn is that he’s got to be professional, he’s got to get on with it and make sure that if something does happen, what he doesn’t want to do is slip backwards in terms of his levels of performance for if he ended up elsewhere. And if he stays here, he needs to be ready to contribute greatly as we know he can.”
Hurst admits that ideally he’d like the matter sorted sooner rather than later: "The ideal scenario is that but at the same time we just spoke about a valuation. Just because I’d like it resolved doesn’t mean we’ll go, ‘Oh, we’ll take less money then’. That’s not the best decision for the football club and moving forward.
"It’s got to be right. I know there’ll be fans who will be saying, ‘It doesn’t matter what we’re offered, we can’t let him go’, they’ll want him here. I get that but we’ve got to do what’s right and best for this football club.
"I think we all understand where we’re at in the league that we’re in and unfortunately there are people out there with a lot bigger chequebooks, budgets so that if someone does come in and do really well for this football club, we’re going to be open to that.
"What I’ve got to try and do is somehow have a little bit more success and just create the best environment we can to try to maybe make it still more appealing to play here and play football.”
Hurst says his talks with Waghorn, who trained with the rest of the squad at Portman Road earlier this afternoon, will remain private.
"We’ve had more than one conversation,” he added. "I’m not going to say what Martyn said. I think if he chooses to do that, it’s down to him but those conversations will remain private and I’ll ask people to respect that.”
Middlesbrough are also still believed to be very keen on Waghorn, while Birmingham are also eyeing the situation and Nottingham Forest have been linked.