Boss Roy Keane says Jon Stead’s move to Bristol City is set to be confirmed today and that the Blues also expect to sign a new striker, Wigan’s Jason Scotland. Town and the Robins have set a £225,000 fee for Stead, who agreed a three-year deal at Ashton Gate last week.

Keane said: “I think that’s going to be done today. Steady’s gone down there and we’ve agreed a deal. I spoke to him yesterday and he’s agreed personal terms, so that looks like it’s done and dusted.”

“He goes with our best wishes because he’s done well for us in recent weeks when we’ve had a lot of injuries and one or two other strikers leaving the club. We wish him well, we’re disappointed to lose him, but that’s the situation we face at the moment.”

The Blues boss says he is hopeful that there could be a replacement, Wigan’s Jason Scotland, arriving this afternoon: “We hope to get one in today. We’ve given the thumbs up for Steady to go to Bristol, so I’m pretty sure that that deal will be done and dusted later today, otherwise we’d have held on to Steady.

“That’ll be three strikers out and one in, but we hope to maybe get one or two in over the next few weeks, probably loan deals and we’ll just go with what we’ve got.

“The international week gives us a couple of weeks to try and get some of our injured boys back. The way we were doing on Saturday we’re getting away with it, but over the course of the season any more injuries and we’ll be in trouble, but fingers crossed, so far the players are doing well.”

Town and the Latics recently agreed a £750,000 deal for Scotland but the move was put on hold while Wigan looked for a replacement for the 31-year-old Trinidad and Tobago international.

The Blues manager dismissed weekend reports claiming he was about to make a £4 million last move for Cardiff's Michael Chopra.

Keane says that Darren O’Dea will be OK to face Crewe on Tuesday, but is yet to decide whether Grant Leadbitter will be involved having returned more quickly than expected from his ankle injury.

Photo: Action Images

Karlosfandangal added 10:15 - Aug 23 I agree with letting Stead go as he and Priskin are very similar, if we could have sold Priskin then I would say keep Stead as he has done well for us. Priskin seems to be favouite with Keane. Scotlands record in this division is better than Stead so if the letting go of Stead paves the way for a better player so be it. (Kennedy for Thatcher Fulop for Wright) Having said that Scotland will need to score 15 to 20 goals this season and we need to sign another striker to justify letting Stead go as I think we are still short. On the blancing of the books Ipswich went in to debt and the wage bill was reported to be 24 Million for the 1st team. The clubs wage bill when ME came was reported to be down to 5 Million and last season it was reported to be 14 Million. I agree with cut backs but 15 players out and only 6 in is not going to make us contenders as we will struggle as the season goes on, but the replacements must be better than what we have now

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FenboyBlue added 10:16 - Aug 23 "Ready Steady Gone" We're sailing close to the wind now with striker deficiencies. Roy's passed the baton over to Clegg and Evans now to sort a deal for someone soon.
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Coolpooper added 10:19 - Aug 23 Very confused. Stead is worth just 225k. Scotland 750k. Garvan 200k. Edwards 1 mil. Ah its not confusing. We let players go under value, and sign players for over inflated prices.
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Karlosfandangal added 10:21 - Aug 23 I think the only reason we will go for loan players is there will be no time left to do a perminent deals with anyone. They will work on deals over the next few months and sign them in the Jan transfer window.
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BlueBoots added 10:22 - Aug 23 If we're going to continue to play 4-3-3, I can't see us making another central striker permanent signing, as it'll be 1 from the 3 of Wickham, Scotland and Priskin, plus 2 widemen. What we do need to sign are a couple of old heads at Right Back / Holding Midfield to support Peters / Hyam, and another right winger to replace Walters (as competition / cover for Edwards). Sad to see Stead go - great attitude and workrate, but as he was in the last year of his contract, I think it's a move that suits the club and the player.

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MarkITFC added 10:22 - Aug 23 Sad to see Steady go as always give 110% would much rather it be priskin , but will be happy to see Scotland come in this afternoon as i reckon he will bang in the goals , but then were still in the same place with a lack of striker options so would love to see McCormack come in on loan ? he didnt even start on saturday so who knows , if not chopra but not for 4 mill ! ... if were playing this 4-3-3 , then we have Townsend and edwards to play out wide like saturday . Townsend Scotland Edwards OR Wickham Scotland Edwards ?

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hollywoodginge added 10:29 - Aug 23 also forgot to say farewell and good luck starting from next sunday jon stead! i fear that he will score against us on saturday as he always seems to start with a flurry of goals for a new team. but as i say, good luck to him and hope he gets a good reception on saturday.
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_Mhs_ added 10:29 - Aug 23 i dont know how wickham will play on the right of the front three, he's usually the middle of the three but then again scotland wouldn't be any good out on the wing. I get the feeling stead will go and no one will come in... wasn't the reason why wigan stalled the bid because they needed to bring a striker in first? i haven't heard of any strikers going to wigan, so surely they still wont let the deal go through? unless they've lined someone up behind the scenes.. Still, i'm a very happy man if we bring in 3 or 4 decent players over the next fortnight :)

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KembleBlue added 10:33 - Aug 23 Ramseyn - not sure what your comment means? If it regards us being part of the ME Group, then for tax reasons, he should actually want Ipswich to make huge losses to offset them against paying tax on profit of the other group companies - this is what is happening when people have constantly mentioned 'offsetting losses' since day 1- its a tax offset, not cash. It would be very wrong for you to think that our season ticket money is funding a receptionists salary at his PR company? Also, people need to remember the financial position we were in before being taken over by ME Group - no cash, selling all our players on the cheap, huge debts.. we now have financial stability, have paid over £1m we couldnt have dreamed of on a good goalie (who had a complete mental hooha for the Palace goal btw.. when he came out i thought he looked like an excited kid, was never going to get the ball) and most importantly can hold on to players like Wickham who under the old regime would have had to have been sold at the offer of £5m let alone hold out for £10m and keep him on our books for a couple of years..

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dogburtino added 10:40 - Aug 23 Loans could be interesting as prem teams will start to loan out players not in their 25 man squads...
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tractorboynathan added 10:41 - Aug 23 I'm happy with stead going. yes it is for a small amount bot considering he is on 15k a week and he's only scoring 7~10 goals a season then bye stead! Some fans on here want him to be the striker scoring 15~20 goals a season! But that's not him he is an average player and you will be very lucky to get 13~15 goals from him! I will be very happy with Scotland tbh, yes he's 31 but still is a very good player that will score goals. People on here say he's too slow no pace no good enough, but when I saw him when he was with Swansea he was nothing like that, was big, physical, powerful and had an eye for goal.45 goals in 90 apps for Swansea is quality! Would love to see chopra down here but however we good get two strikers on the mould of Scotland and mocormack for around 1.5 million would be so much better! We despertly need another holding midfielder because hyam us quality, but however we need that experience! Also need a right back, as cover for peters! COYB!

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ramseyn added 10:45 - Aug 23 Balhamblue, I do understand how the tax situation works within a group organisation, and absolutely agree that a loss under one banner can be very helpful in paying less tax. However, this only applies as long as other areas of the business are making good profit. Do we know this? I wasn't suggesting we are paying for a receptionist somewhere, but being in business I understand that numbers get moved around all the time. Even to pay for another yacht or another 50,000 hookey tickets for a corporate event ie the world cup. It was suggested that evans' losses from having to pay back huge incomes once he was discovered to not be a FIFA partner in south Africa were immense.

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Back_The_Boss added 10:46 - Aug 23 Sad to see Stead go he works his socks off. I like Jason Scotland though. Just got my Pompey tickets, COYB!!
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ITFCson added 10:51 - Aug 23 The sale of steady seems beyond the ridiculous...If he is on his last year of his contract then we are only commited to paying his wages until it expires, so he is on 15k a week.... 15X52 + 225k = 1.05M So thats how much it would cost to keep him this season and risk him going for free. How much do they say its worth getting in the prem? 60M...Seems a very good calculated gamble to keep him as having him here (even just as a back up striker or from the bench) could be the difference between us gaining promotion. Also we gain extra revenue the further we go in the cups...he could certainly be the difference between winning and losing vs crewe. Maybe not going to get those 20 goals a season but certainly the type of character you want around a football club. His attitude recently has been excellent, it must of been hard to get motivated for the palace game when you know the following saturday you will probably be playing against your team-mates. If he does go I wish him all the best, his attitude and commitment should be an example to all.

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JayITFC added 10:54 - Aug 23 Is Scotland half a million better than Stead? Higher wages as well I bet. I'm not so sure...
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CavendishBlue added 10:54 - Aug 23 Well said Balhamblue.I was about to make a related point. It is very unlikely that ME sees our club as a cash cow.As apart from the land, we have very little that will increase his wealth currently, and even that market is still slow currently. If we make the Scotland signing today then surely we still have to look at one expereinced premiership loan signing in the forward department. Keep the faith.

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moomoosereni added 10:56 - Aug 23 Best of luck Stead. Think previous comments are probably most accurate. Think selling him for just over 200k is disappointing but he was most likely on high wages so it frees up cash for incoming players. Don't think its necessarily the fees that have been holding our transfers up, but the wages we've had to free up. Now that this has happened lets hope this week is a busy one for us. Keane clearly has identified his list of players he wants in and now its down to Clevans to get the deals sorted, so pull your fingers out and get the players in that Keane deserves for his good start to the season. COYB.

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GiveusaWave added 11:06 - Aug 23 Stead, Walters, Counago out-Scotland in. I feel sorry for Keane. He is talking all the time now about lack of players and he is now getting in less rather than more...... Lets hope another striker signing is in the pipeline- we need it...
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tractorboynathan added 11:06 - Aug 23 Cavendishblue~ what are you saying we still need an experienced premiership striker! We had David healy last season that did f*c* all! He scored 1 goal! We also had Daryl Murphy who scored important goals for us, but he still did f*c* all! We don't need that we need hungry players! In the mould of morcormak!
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KembleBlue added 11:11 - Aug 23 ramseynh - fair enough, not a dig just alot of people merely repeat phrases or sentances theyve heard without really understanding them.. as far as im aware ME group is not a public co so i guess you cant see their statements.. i havnt heard any are in a bad financial position or performing badly though.. the WC was abit.. dodgey? but think it should be remembered, ME is a clever and bold fella.. the way he made hsi millions was challenging Wimbledon and winning when previously in the sport world, no one could take on the mights of the sporting authority.. Clearly, FIFA are (corrupt, t*ssers etc) but big fish and this gamble didnt work out.. The cash may have got shipped back out of ME Group - im not sure - but eg no heavy fines etc were imposed so there wasnt a great loss made? Agree, moving figures around is one thing, and easy to do.. to actually move cash 'ilegitimately' is a very difficult thing to do, especially since ITFC Plc still have a MI in the club.. in summary - what a shame if Stead leaves! Seems a genuine chap, hard working and frankly a decent footballer..

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emergencylime added 11:14 - Aug 23 Much as i like his eye for goal, I'd rather we didn't pay £4m for Chopra. I think the problem we had last year was that teams knew that Keane would have money to throw at players and we ended up paying over the odds (eg, Martin, Priskin). It seems this year ME/Clegg have been more reluctant to pay out so as to avoid a repeat of last seasons 'mistakes'. They'll only stump up if there's a strong argument for splashing out, which could be the cause for all these long, drawn-out 'talks' over players. Provided we have some experience in each area, i think it's more feasible for us to get players from lower leagues (eg, Harley, Austin) who will be less of an outlay and will not command such high wages. Plus i believe they will encourage more of a sense of competition for places.

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SouperJim added 11:15 - Aug 23 The ignorance on here is even more staggering than usual. I've always rated Stead and promoted us keeping him, but lets get realistic. He's looked good recently, yes, I wonder why that could be? Do we really think it makes sense to hang onto Stead and let him walk in the summer? I'd rather we had players here who need no extra motivation, want to be here, can perform every week and will be part of the team going forward. That means bye bye Garvan, Pablo, David Wright and yes even Jon Stead. Case in point Sito Castro, a world beater when his contract was up or he was in the shop window, what did he do the rest of the time eh? Naff all. We don't want players like that at this football club and the sooner the rest of you get on board and start backing the club, rather than certain "fan favourite" players, the better. Alex Bruce is another one. When his contract was up under Magilton many so called fans were booing the manager and cheering that money-grabbing mercenary because "he wears his heart on his sleeve". Does he my backside, he has an over-inflated opinion of himself, knows which side his bread is buttered and knows how to play the crowd, nothing more. Also those suggesting evans is trying to balance his personal books via ITFC should consider the massive outlay of cash last year and how much of it was wasted on flops like Lee Martin. Keane identified those players and Clegg gave them the contracts needed to get them through the door. No wonder Evans is promoting a little more caution this time around. I'm encouraged by our good start and the new-found spirit within the side now the bad eggs have been shown the door. Keane is finally starting to put his own side together and we might actually see some progress this season, but I can't blame Evans for keeping his cheque book in his pocket until he's actually seen some results.

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Woodbridgian added 11:17 - Aug 23 In my view only 3 possible reasons for the lack of activity on players coming in 1) ME has run out of money 2) Clegg is Incompetent 3) ME / Clegg trying to get Keane so frustrated he walks and they to get rid on the cheap
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Suffolk_n_Good added 11:21 - Aug 23 A good start it may have been, but if we only bring in 1 attack minded player before the window closes, this is seriously bad judgement on SC & ME part. Assuming Scotland arrives, our first choice strikers would have to be Scotland & Wickham (currently injured) with Priskin as back up! (heaven help us!) & thats it! Murray is still only a youth with little senior experience, Surely we must have something up our sleeves.......

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mickeyjb added 11:21 - Aug 23 Freeing up cash is all very well, freeing up cash for what though? If Scotland is all we get then I think a lot of questions needs to be answered by Clegg, oh I just remembered he only speaks to us fans once every 5 years
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