Burnley have emerged as Town’s main rivals for the signature of Swindon striker Charlie Austin with the Robins having accepted an offer from the Clarets for the highly-rated frontman. The Blues have so far been unable to agree personal terms with the 21-year-old, who was locked in talks at Portman Road yesterday after the clubs agreed a fee believed to be approaching £2 million.

The Blues are understood to have offered Austin a three-and-a-half-year deal but are yet to match the terms required by the former Poole striker.

Now Burnley have matched Town’s bid to Swindon and have been given permission to speak to the former Poole frontman with talks taking place at Turf Moor today.

Blackpool and Southampton have also expressed an interest in the one-time bricklayer but have not yet had offers accepted by the Robins.

Austin knows new Burnley boss Eddie Howe well having come close to joining his former club Bournemouth before he joined for Swindon. The Cherries were unable to complete his signing as they had a transfer embargo in place at the time and he moved to the County Ground instead.

However, Austin is believed to want to remain in this south if possible and a switch to Town is understood to appeal, if he can agree terms.

Photo: Action Images

bobble added 11:10 - Jan 28 one day something really serious is going to happen .......at least you people seem prepared
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brad548ye added 11:13 - Jan 28 Why does everyone always blame clegg for not getting the deals done? surely its Mr Evans that tells Clegg this is the budget for his wages, try to get him cheaper if you can but no higher than the budget. Its Evans who's being tight not Clegg!!!!
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StowTractorBoy added 11:14 - Jan 28 Presumably the anti Clegg brigade are the same people that were anti Sheepshanks. These blokes are doing the best they can in the interests of Ipswich Town. Clegg does not hold the purse strings Marcus Evans does and to keep lambasting Clegg is ridiculous. Why should Austin be on a better package than say Priskin or Leadbitter or Edwards. If you did the same job as your work colleagues and they earnt more than you how would you feel. There is a very fine balance with negotiating deals but many on here do not think things through. Clegg has limits and pay structures to abide by. If Austin does not want to come here then OK move on. As for Burnley not being able to afford him what nonsense - they still have millions to come from parachute money so are in a far stronger position than us and also have a chance of reaching the play offs something we do not have. Some things are meant to be and PJ will find another I am sure.

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Matteo_Sereni added 11:24 - Jan 28 Clegg has f****ed this one up...guarentee it!
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devontractorboy added 11:26 - Jan 28 Well said Stow Tractor Boy, just what I was about to post, some of our fans live on fantasy island. Some have very short memories of the financial sh1te we were in not so long ago. When you are in the position we are in anyone seems a good buy, but unrest in the dressing room because one player earns more than another is not wanted at the moment. Agents drive all this anyhow, so he will go where the money offer is best...which won't be here!!

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mkblue added 11:27 - Jan 28 Stow Tractor boy As a newly signed up member of the anti Clegg brigade I was pro Sheepshanks and would welcome him back as at least he understood Ipswich and football (granted he did over reach himself and land us in financial trouble DOH) but he understood football and I believe he genuinely wanted to do his best for the club. I have given Clegg the benefit of the doubt but all that he has seem to have done recently is fail and cause chaos. And it is a shame because other than Clegg things are looking good for us at the moment and if we could get rid of him then I see a very bright and exciting future

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bluekeen added 11:28 - Jan 28 I agree Stow tractor Boy, That there are Wages structures, I was never anti Sheepshanks he knew how to do a deal to get a player in our wages structure previously... a lot of the time when u negociate a dal in any walk of life its not allways about the cost its about what u are selling are u selling a 3.5 yr deal worth nearly £2m assuming 10k a week wage... or are u selling the football club the history and tradition - thats what sheepshanks would do and John kerr dare i say before him or the cobbolds . to these men money was always always the last thing on the table. because they understood the club they understood the tradition and what it was like to be a blue. i am saying Clegg does not - he is a mercinairy him self - anduntil we have someone in charge who is not the budget could be £250k a week people will not sign .

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dirtydingusmagee added 11:31 - Jan 28 so we lose out again ,knowing our luck Jimmy Bullard will trip over his boot lace warming up and be out for rest of season , .......banana anyone ?
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Worcester added 11:32 - Jan 28 Lets not feel sorry for Clegg. Yes CA is unproven at Championship level. But PJ wants him for a reason. Do we respect his opinion? Yes we probably do. He is one player we would like to have BUT we do have Wickham Priskin and scotland. Give them the service and they will score
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bluearmy78 added 11:38 - Jan 28 Will be gutted if we don't get Austin, however, if a second team come in for you who wouldn't sit down with them and see what they have to offer?? Apart from Giggs, footballers are mercaneries, you only have to look at the Rooney fiasco at the start of the season. Eddie Howe has been a long admirer of Austin, fact! He tried to sign him at Bournemouth and he said last week that he hoped to make Austin his first signing for Burnley. At the end of the day it will come down to money, Austin say's that he wants to stay down South, lets see what Burnley have to offer. The deal isnt dead yet but only time will tell, I really hope that he comes to IP1, but at the end of the day its whatever Austin wants!!

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matt14stevens added 11:39 - Jan 28 Quote from Swindom website "The 21-year-old failed to agree personal terms with Ipswich on Thursday after Swindon had accepted an offer." Looks like he wont sign :@ Get clegg out
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tractorboybig added 11:40 - Jan 28 Clegg is coming in for a lot of flack. BUT remember he is employed by evans to do his bidding not that of ipswich town. we are just a product in evans corporation. also remember that this club still owes evans its debt and we still have to pay him back one day.. F**ked all round really.
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Worcester added 11:43 - Jan 28 His agent have used us a way to drive up his wages at Burnley :o( "go to ipswich, make the right noises, don't sign anything, go to burnley get what you want"
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Youth added 11:48 - Jan 28 clearly hes wanting more money which is obvisously understandable but this to me sounds like he's willing to play for anyone as long as moneys right...would love to see him as a town player but we have to be sensible in the fact we dont want to risk a high wage for someone who isnt a proven player in the higher leaugues...also town have top be careful on wage demands as i wouldnt like to think someone from a lower leaugue is getting more wages than our next future star whickham as that would rock the boat in the ipswich camp...

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pepperot123 added 11:48 - Jan 28 Completed Bullard signing, missed out on Austin, would have loved Austin to sign but I think Bullards recruitment will prove more important for the rest of this season. Not much point having a finisher if we dont create many chances. We now have more creativity in the middle of the park and at set pieces. Lets give Wickham, Priskin & Scotland an opportunity to score some goals and start to rebuild in the Summer.

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mkblue added 11:48 - Jan 28 I do agree tractor boy big that we are at the mercy of M/E but at least he has shown some support to various managers and made money avaliable and it seems that he is willing to back the managers and see if they can improve our standing unfortunatly jim and he who shall not be mentioned failed to improve things and he has made the money avaliable for Jewell to at least get the players into negotiate. On the other hand I challenge anyone to name one positive thing Clegg has done for Ipswich. As far as I can see all he has achieved is disaster (he seems to have the midas touch in reverse everything he touches turns to sh1t) He has gutted our team Jacked up admission prices so we are the third most expensive team to watch in the UK And regularly failed to seal the deal when various mangers have done all the ground work. In my opinion he optimises all that is wrong at the moment in business in that he is rewarded for incompitence instead of getting what he deserves THE SACK

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bobble added 11:52 - Jan 28 i think clegg may be more unproven at this level than the young bricky !
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Papa added 11:53 - Jan 28 I dont know whats going on, I dont care to speculate either. Maybe Austin is looking at his options and hasnt decided yet? As for some people blaming Evans and calling him tight, the guy has given us about £50 million of his own money. You should stop being so bloody ungrateful.
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thechangingman added 11:55 - Jan 28 So, we manage to secure the, ahem, 'services' of a old, past-his-best defender on high wages and with a VERY dubious injury record and then lose out on the young, up-and-coming striker... Sigh. Same as it ever was... Why are we surprised by this? It's a theme that will inevitably continue on LONG into the future... *even bigger SIGH...*
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pauliojewlio added 11:55 - Jan 28 However dissapointing this looks likely to be, I have to say I am with StowTractorBoy on this to a certain extent. There are limits to how much we can offer, but presumably if we can afford to pay the lions share of Jimmy Bullard's premier league wages for the rest of the season (granted there is no transfer fee to be paid) then there must be room in ME's budget for players?? Especially when we are talking about a striker who clearly has a good goal scoring record and ticks all of the boxes of what we are crying out for!!! Having said that it does seem fairly obvious that Austin will sign for Burnley so we move on. I'm sure Jewel will have other irons in the fire- I would be very happy with someone like Jason Roberts for the rest of the season. He is proven at this level (Austin isn't) and has had a frustrating time at Blackburn this season and I'm sure would enjoying linking up with Jewel again. We need a boost in front of goal and I'm sure if the right player is avaiable, Jewel will get his man.

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Keaneish added 12:00 - Jan 28 F**k Sake!!!
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blueherts added 12:00 - Jan 28 No one knows the details - If the Agent wanted more than others at on for a 21 year old - good prospect - who has never played above Div One , then we are right not to cave in ..some people on there seem to think as soon as a player is interested its a done deal ... And for those harking back to the Sheepshanks days - hmmm - loved the club but look where we ended up financially ..Sereni , Finidi , Counago

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osborne1nil added 12:03 - Jan 28 All speculation. If we get to know a little bit more information (possibly later today) we will be able to make a clearer decision on whether Clegg is a numpty or Austin is greedy. If it is the later then ITFC should be applauded for sticking to a structure. If it is the prior reason then perhaps M.E. will look at Clegg and realize that he is the weakest link and give him the boot. SC appears to have very little charisma unlike Sheepshanks and agree with an earlier point made that firstly sell the Club and its history before talking wages - this maybe what SC has done? The fact we have 21 contracts about to expire is a worry but could have been looked at as an opportunity to revamp the team without paying up contracts early or relying on transfer sales.

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stringtheory added 12:03 - Jan 28 Strewth! Do you simpletons really think it's all down to Clegg's negotiating skills as to whether Austin signs for us!! I bet you believe in Father Christmas too and type 'Coronation Street' into your satnavs.
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DT_ONE added 12:05 - Jan 28 Sadly Sky Sports seem to think he has agreed to sign for Burnley following a medical :( http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11728_6706379,00.html
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