Boss Roy Keane has confirmed that the Blues have received interest in central defensive linchpin Gareth McAuley, but dismissed the offers as “silly”. The Northern Irishman, who was linked with Bristol City last week, says he is keen to remain with the Blues.

Keane confirmed that there has been interest in the former skipper: “We’ve had a few offers for Gareth, I’m not going to say who from. Some silly offers.”

The Blues boss says he wouldn’t be interested in selling the former Leicester and Lincoln man, who he sees as an important member of his squad: “Gareth’s a massive player for us like Jon Walters, Connor Wickham or Damien Delaney. Some of the offers we’ve had have been crazy.

“I think everyone got the impression that every player is available on the cheap this summer. I know that’s what the agents have been doing because we said one or two players might be available. All of a sudden everyone thinks they are available on a free transfer. When I ring about a player it’s £2-£3 million straight away.”

Speaking last week, McAuley said he wasn't looking for a change of scene: “I don’t want my agent looking to move me on.

“Unless Ipswich receive a bid and they accept it, which will make it an entirely different situation, I don’t want to even hear the word transfer.

“I’d like to say the talk last year didn’t unsettle me but the truth is that it did and I don’t need it all over again.”

McAuley says he is looking for the Blues to turn more draws into wins once the new season is under way: “We drew far too many games [last season], 20 in total, or we would have finished much higher.

“There’s not a great deal to choose between a lot of Championship clubs and our draws confirm that.

“Most of the time we seemed to go ahead and then find ourselves settling for a draw or, even worse, losing the game.

“Important lessons were learned and we must try to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes all over again.”

Earlier in the summer, Premier League Bolton and SPL champions Rangers were also linked with the Glenroe-born defender.

Photo: Action Images

ipswichsupporter88 added 14:07 - Aug 6 he better not go. we need defenders atm
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the_gospel added 14:07 - Aug 6 if we're offered 50 million we gotta accept.
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pimballwizard added 14:12 - Aug 6 Silly is such a lovely catch- all adjective... We might have received a silly offer for Macca which we dont want to follow up BUT..... we have apparently alledgedly received a "silly offer for Mr Walters which we might want to go for... love it...
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robdaful added 14:21 - Aug 6 Its nice to hear that McAuley says he doesn't want to go. One of rhe teams that made and offer is Bristol City and I am believed to think another is Middlesbough and a third being Nottingham Forrest as they lost Perch. And I see that Keane has put Walters in with his list of important players.
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Lightningboy added 14:32 - Aug 6 Good solid defender..let's hope he doesn't have a slow start again this season like the previous 2.
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belfasttractor added 14:48 - Aug 6 Great to hear he wants to stay, here's to a good start tomorrow!
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TractorRoyNo1 added 14:53 - Aug 6 story must be rubbish we all 'know' that all the players hate Keane and are all keen to get away - don't we???
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bizman added 15:05 - Aug 6 Against west ham he was one of the best players on the pitch. Come on gazza score us a header from Kennedy corner on Saturday! Kennedy btw has an awsome dead ball delivery ability it's good stuff
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BlueBoots added 15:06 - Aug 6 One of our few indispensibles, and he's got the added responsibility of helping the likes of Smith, Brown and Eastman through games while Delaney is injured, so he'll need to be even better this season... Macca had an absolute shocker away to Boro last season (although to be fair, he was played on the left side of central defence and didn't look comfortable), and I'm pretty sure he'll be itching to put that right tomorrow.

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nobrain added 15:07 - Aug 6 What a game this transfer market is. "my player is important to me" means "you need to put in a higher bid".
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Smithy added 15:16 - Aug 6 once captaincy was taken away from him he has been immense, probably our most consistent player at the moment. Nice to hear a player loyal to his employees, good on ya Gareth
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Upbeat~ added 15:38 - Aug 6 Great guy, great attitude, just please put the header from the corner on target next match
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bluefishx added 17:10 - Aug 6 Not as silly as the money used for Priskin.
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francisb123 added 17:58 - Aug 6 McAuley is a vital player and we need to hold onto him as hes key for our promotion push and i believe weve been linked with gypes before and hes nowhere near the standards of gareth
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Len_Brennan added 20:37 - Aug 6 “I think everyone got the impression that every player is available on the cheap this summer. I know that's what the agents have been doing because we said one or two players might be available. All of a sudden everyone thinks they are available on a free transfer. When I ring about a player it's £2-£3 million straight" Any idea why that might be Roy? Why would they possibly think that we would agree to sell players for half nothing (Rhodes/Bruce/Garvan/Stead/Counago) and then are prepared to pay over the odds for average players (Martin/Priskin). It's not like you behaved like that when you were manager of Sunderland either is it Roy?

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leadbitter6 added 20:48 - Aug 6 Len Brennan, how a transfer normally works, manager tells chairman the players he wants, chairman gets in contact with relevant club regarding player and HE makes the offer, NOT THE MANAGER.
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Len_Brennan added 21:04 - Aug 6 @leadbitter6 Normally is a very important word in your post. How come this has happened so often with RK? It's disproportionate to other managers. Either the players don't want to come & extra enticement is needed, the wrong/ unrealistic players are identified or a perception exists that this club will pay more for the players than others for someone that the manager wants. As for players going out, saying things like "these players will never play for the club again, the are not the right character, I won't accept ... from a player and will leave him rot in the reserves" will give other clubs encouragement to put in a cheeky bid. I think you are underestimating the influence of RK in all such dealings.

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BlueArmy01 added 22:16 - Aug 6 Well Said Mr Brennan you obviously fell the same as me about Mr Keane.......... what we need is some of those Royse Tinted Glasses lots of people who clearly know jack about Football wear on here
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