Leeds United are reported to have joined Town in showing interest in Blackburn Rovers forward Sammie Szmodics.
TWTD revealed the Blues were in talks with the Championship side regarding the 28-year-old almost a fortnight ago, Town having made an offer of £6 million, with the move already having been under discussion for a few weeks at that stage.
That initial bid was dismissed by Rovers but negotiations continued last week and are still ongoing with the two parties understood to be getting nearer to an agreement.
While Blackburn have been claimed to want £20 million, a fee around the £8 million mark, perhaps with add-ons taking it towards £10 million, seems a not unlikely figure on which they may ultimately settle.
But now, according to various reports, the Whites, who the Blues pipped to promotion to the Premier League last season, have also registered an interest in the Republic of Ireland international.
However, it seems unlikely that Town would be beaten to Szmodics’s signature by Leeds with the Blues able to give him Premier League football for the first time in his career and the player believed to be keen on the switch. We understand another Championship club, Sheffield United, have also shown interest this summer.
Born in Colchester, Szmodics, a player we understand the Blues have eyed in the last couple of windows, came through the youth ranks with the U’s before breaking into their first team in 2013 prior to a spell on loan in non-league with Braintree.
A move to Bristol City, where Blues CEO Mark Ashton was then in charge, followed in 2019, prior to a switch to Peterborough, initially on loan, before he joined Blackburn in August 2022.
Last season, the forward was top scorer in the Championship with 27 goals, leading to his first international call-ups. He has now won four full caps.
By coincidence, like the Blues, Blackburn had a training camp in Austria last week.