Town boss Paul Lambert says none of his first-teamers being sold before the transfer window closed last Friday was great, despite Crystal Palace having made two bids for Flynn Downes in late August, but says that interest may be renewed in January and admits that if clubs offer “really good money” then the Blues couldn’t stand in the way of players moving to the top flight.
In addition to Palace making their rebuffed offers of £1.2 million and £1.6 million for Downes, who is currently out with a knee injury, Championship AFC Bournemouth made a bid of around £1 million for Kayden Jackson, while Luke Woolfenden was also understood to have caught the eye of other clubs last season.
"You can only be bought if someone wants to buy you,” Lambert said. "People have to come in.
"Flynn’s situation everybody knew about and it went the way it did, that went away. It might raise its head again in the next window, I don’t know, but that’s football.
"Nobody moving is great on that side of it. But if somebody comes in and offers really good money for any of the guys, I don’t think the club can stand in the way because of the way the financial situation is at the minute. But somebody’s got to come in and want to buy you, so we wait and see.”
Reflecting further on Palace’s offers for Downes, he added: "The money wasn’t good, the money was nowhere near good enough so [owner] Marcus [Evans] was quite right, quite entitled to do what he wants. It’s his club, he runs it, it’s finances, but the bid itself was absolutely nowhere near.
"But if they came in with an offer which was incredible and Flynn went, then it would be brilliant for Flynn, I’m not going to sit here and deny a young kid the chance to go into the Premier League or anything like that, but the money had to be right for the football club.
"I knew it wasn’t and Marcus obviously has the main call on it and he said that as well.
"Flynn did great for us and if the club got an incredible offer, then I think the club would thank him for his efforts and he goes and tries to be what hopefully he’s going to turn out to be. This club can’t stand in a young kid’s way if the money’s really, really good.”