Town boss Kieran McKenna has revealed that young striker Tyreece Simpson has told the club he wants to move on in the summer.
The 19-year-old was recalled from a loan spell with League Two Swindon in January having netted 11 goals for the Robins having turned down the offer of a new contract with Town. His current terms are up this summer but with the club having an option for a further season.
It been anticipated that the frontman would return to the County Ground at the end of the month if a deal was agreed but no agreement was reached and the player’s agent has now told the Blues he wants to leave in the close season.
"At the moment Tyreece is not training with the group,” McKenna said. "His representative spoke to the club a couple of weeks ago and expressed his wishes that he wants to move on in the summer, so he’s not training with the first-team group at the moment and that’s now the responsibility of the club to work with his representation and decide on a solution to that one.”
Asked whether that’s a disappointment with Simpson presumably having been someone he would have been looking forward to working with in years to come, McKenna said: "As a football club, we know the direction that we’re going in. We can only make that clear to young players in terms of how we see their development pathway, what opportunities there might be and then people are free to make the decision from there.
"At the moment that is [with] Tyreece and his representation and that’s now for the club to organise and speak to him on.”
Is there any hope of a resolution being come to or is that it, he’s definitely now going to go in the summer?
"I think that’s now a situation for the club now, to be honest,” McKenna said.
"Tyreece is a 19-year-old young man. He’s still very early in his career and I don’t think it does anyone any favours to speak about it too much or speculate in too much detail about that any further about that than what’s been said, so I think that’s the situation as it stands and that’s now between Tyreece and his representation and the club.”
It seems likely Town will activate the option in Simpson's deal in order to achieve a fee for him in the close season, a figure which is likely to be higher than the compensation which would be due if he otherwise joins another club.
Speaking about the situation with Simpson at the Fans' Forum last month, CEO Mark Ashton said: "What I would say, it’s wrong of me to talk about any individual player’s contract, but one thing I can promise our supporter base is that I will fight tooth and nail for this football club.
"This football club will not in any shape or form be agent or representative led. It doesn’t work. Doesn’t work for me, won’t work for this ownership group.
"Ipswich Town will decide where its young players go, what’s best and what contracts are put in front of them and how that works and how that pathway works to the first team.
"And it’s the same for the senior boys. We have good relationships, most of the agents across the world, we have a big wide network, and I think if you look at the careers of myself and people around me, we’ve been really successful in what we’ve done in player trading.
"Our job is to protect this football club and at times that’s tough, and it’s a tough world with agents at times.
"But we have to protect the football club and if we don’t show strength at certain times, trust me, our football club will get walked all over. I’ve seen it time and time again.
"We need to do the right thing, nothing’s ever personal, sometimes it’s business. My job is fundamentally to protect Ipswich Town Football Club and that’s what I will do right until the last second I’m here.
"But we try and do it in the right way, by the way, we have good relationships with most if not all agents and they’re happy to bring players here because we do contract and pay people in the right way, we incentivise them, we develop those contracts and on the playing side you’ve got coaches who will develop them.
"As Kieran said, this football club will be a really appetising place for young players to come for many years ahead.”
Simpson has made four league sub appearances for Town plus two EFL Trophy starts and one game from the bench.