Blades Linked With ÂŁ3m Woolfenden Move - Ipswich Town News
Sheffield United are reportedly planning to offer Town ÂŁ3 million for central defender Luke Woolfenden.
News of the Blades’ interest in the 21-year-old emerged over the weekend and, according to The Sun, manager Chris Wilder is "ready to pay” £3 million for Woolfenden his scouts having given him rave reviews.
Wilder is also said to be targeting a ÂŁ7 million move for Anderlecht's Belgium international centre-half Elias Cobbaut.
Academy product Woolfenden is contracted to the Blues until the summer of 2022 with the club having an option for a further season.
Asked about interest in Woolfenden and midfielder Flynn Downes on BBC Radio Suffolk's Life’s a Pitch on Saturday, general manager of football operations Lee O’Neill said Town are keen to hold on to their young players but didn’t entirely rule out their departures.
"Those players that you’ve mentioned, I’m sure they are on other clubs’ radars and lists,” he said.
"The football club doesn’t want to be in a situation to sell our young players, they’re here for us to try and help our club to go forward.
"As [owner] Marcus [Evans] has said and [manager] Paul [Lambert] has come out and said on a number of occasions, if there’s an economic business situation we cannot turn down then we’d have to look at it separately.
"But the plan is we want those young players to be here, along with the senior players to drive the club forward.”
He added that no firm offers had been received: "We’ve had no bids for our players. We’ve had enquiries about whether would we sell, similar to you asking the questions now. They know the good players.
"We’ll have scouts at this game today, we’ll have scouts at every game we play. If they’re playing well, they’re on other clubs’ lists.
"They’re also international players that play for their countries, so they’re on other people’s radars from that side of things.”
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