Town goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski is once again the subject of interest from Birmingham City, who failed to buy him last summer but are now said to have launched a fresh bid to sign the Pole, according to a report in a national newspaper today.
The report, which initially appeared in the Daily Star, is accurate, TWTD understands, with the club set to consider bids for the Polish international, who is the highest-paid player at Portman Road following the bumper new deal he signed last year after returning from duty with Poland at the World Cup finals in Russia.
That new contract followed the Blues' refusal of a £3 million offer from Birmingham for Bialkowski, who, following a tough season for both club and player, is valued at half that figure in today's report.
Town have already released experienced keeper Dean Gerken but although they today agreed to bring in Czech keeper Tomas Holy, who rejected the offer of a new contract at Gillingham, it is believed they are keen to offload Bialkowski - and that the keeper himself is expecting to depart.
League One football will do nothing to improve Bialkowski’s international prospects, although his exclusion from the Polish squad last term was mainly due to a slump in form by the 31-year-old that led to him losing his first-team place to Gerken.
Bialkowski was the supporters’ Player of the Year for three successive seasons before being selected for Word Cup duty but he was way below his best for the majority of a campaign that saw Town finish bottom of the Championship table.
It would make sense for both club and player if Bialkowski moved on and Birmingham have emerged as the first interested party, although the keeper will almost certainly attract further bids, mainly from the Championship, in the coming weeks.
Should he, as expected, depart for pastures new Town are likely to bring in another experienced keeper, unless Lambert sees Holy as his number one and promotes 20-year-old Harry Wright to the role of second choice.
In addition to Holy, TWTD understands the Blues have spoken to a number of other keepers this summer, including QPR's Matt Ingram and Exeter's Christy Pym.