Town target Steve Davies had been expected to make his first Derby appearance of pre-season this evening when a Rams reserves side faces Evo-Stik League side Belper Town at their Christchurch Meadow ground. However, the 24-year-old, who the Blues have been chasing all summer, has confirmed that he again won't be involved.

Davies has been left out of all Derby's pre-season games up to now to prevent him from picking up an injury but at the end of last week, Derby boss Nigel Clough said that with no deal yet done, the striker could stay at Pride Park until January and that with this in mind the former Tranmere frontman could now be involved in friendlies.

But Davies has tweeted confirming that he's only going along tonight as a spectator: "Taking a trip to support the boys at Belper tonight. Not playing tonight but going to watch."

We understand that the Blues and Rams continue to hold talks regarding Davies, who Paul Jewell signed when he was manager at Derby, with the clubs believed to be edging closer to an agreement regarding a fee. The Rams had initially targeted a figure of £1 million for the Liverpool-born frontman with the Blues not able to stretch that far.

In June, Davies confirmed that he would be leaving Pride Park this summer for a club nearer to London for what Clough described as "a genuine family reason”.

Photo: Action Images

Photo: Action Images

NorthstaNder added 09:43 - Aug 7 What's the betting we eventually agree and fee and then the deal falls through because we can't agree personal terms! ;-)
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MaySixth added 09:43 - Aug 7 Hopefully he has a shocker at Belper Town tonight.
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JimmyJazz added 09:43 - Aug 7 A run-out for the reserves against Belper. At Ipswich that's called 'being out of the equation'
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parkinshair added 09:49 - Aug 7 And so it goes on..... If he needs to move on for genuine family reasons it seems unfair that the club are still digging their heels in. Whilst arguing the toss with Ipswich all summer they have still been paying his wages. You would have thought they had taken the money and run just to get a player that doesn't want to be there off the books.
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Cattee11 added 09:49 - Aug 7 JimmyJazz - love it!
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robblue added 09:50 - Aug 7 We should just swap him for Jimmy, seeing as he is also out of the equation. We might even save on wages!
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tractorboybig added 09:52 - Aug 7 From a derby point of view pay up or good bye. Whats it to be.
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Len_Brennan added 09:58 - Aug 7 If he picks up an injury it'll tell us what we need to know. It's a bit worrying that they have been afraid to play him all summer just in case he gets injured again. Does he suffer the same medical condition as Samuel L Jackson's character in Unbreakable or something?
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filpot added 10:13 - Aug 7 First of all good luck next season guys. We all think the Davies saga is dragging on too much. He is not that good and I can't understand why this particular deal is taking up so much column inches both in Derby and Ipswich. At best an average player if and when he is fit. He looks a lazy player. An intereview a few years back revealed he was not that bothered about football....Guess it must be the money. Its obvious PJ rates him. He is the only one who rates him. I wish we would let him go and be done with it. Lets face it he's burnt his bridges at Derby. I just hope for your sakes he is worth all this effort.

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bluemin_nora added 10:14 - Aug 7 Parkinshair, what is that in your avatar pic? i can remember it but cant remember the name of it.
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DanLyles added 10:23 - Aug 7 I can see this deal going through just before the Blackburn Rovers game like with the Stead signing a few years ago. PJ seems to have settled on a nice system with Hyam sitting, Luongo initiating moves in the 'Xavi role', then Martin in behind Chopra, and JET floating in from the right. We have alot of pace, the ability to beat a man, pick a final pass, and goals. But we lack the aerial dimension to our attack that Murphy gave us cutting in from out wide; somebody who can go wide left, and thirdly help Chopra with the goal scoring. Davies ticks all these boxes. He used to play wide, he's been prolific when fit and he is good in the air. Not sure how fast he is but that would be an added bonus. I would also love us to sign Adam Hammill from Wolves to add some width. Hammill's pace, energy, passing and an eye for goal made him one of the best players in the Championship when he was at Oakwell.

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DanLyles added 10:26 - Aug 7 Maybe 'prolific' was a tad strong but he did score 23 goals in 55 starts
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suffolkpoker added 10:35 - Aug 7 This is a better "saga" than RVP I love all this mind games, i think Derby are showing signs of cracking. He will be ours for under £500k within 2 weeks
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parkinshair added 10:45 - Aug 7 bluemin nora Moschops from Moschops Early 80's kids programme narrated by Bernard Cribbins.
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LollITFC added 10:53 - Aug 7 ahh how i loved Moschops :) ... lets discuss this, much more interesting than the Davis saga !!!!
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gibbo added 11:13 - Aug 7 I hope Jewell has a plans b,c or d if this is still dragging come transfer dead line day.
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tractorgirls added 11:15 - Aug 7 Someone please tell me, is this guy any good; honestly not heard of him scoring that many goals over the last season or 2, feel completely uninspired by this constant story of will it, won't it... what is his scoring record like?
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alliedaz added 11:32 - Aug 7 who cares jewell aint going to pay out £1m for him so lets move on and wait for clegg and evans to count out the penny jar
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dirtydingusmagee added 11:49 - Aug 7 forget it !
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TownLad21 added 12:04 - Aug 7 is it just me or have we started to dry up in the transfer market? apart from wilson and davies we havnt even really been linked with anyone at all
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Edmunds5 added 12:37 - Aug 7 Good player who I would like to see at our club, but I dont really care now to be honest, We should either pay what Derby want or say no thanks and move onto another player, we've got to be stubborn too. Derby will just be left with an unsettled player who wont want to be at the club and they would have missed out of a decent fee, that's their loss quite frankly.
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Garv added 12:42 - Aug 7 I hope signing Davies doesn't mean we're going to play 4-4-2. Should be 4-2-3-1 all the way, which would presumably mean Davies will spend a fair amount of time on the bench, unless he can take up the Murphy wide left role? Or can he play up top on his own when Chopra isn't firing? Hope we get it done, but it is started to get a bit silly.
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bluearmy4life added 12:47 - Aug 7 Town are not moving quick enough in this transfer window and as it stands I can only see another struggling season for us unfortunately. I really hope we do have a cracking season but I just don't really see how we are any stronger as a team. Maybe at the back with chambers, but going forward we have no Murphy (a player we will miss) Leadbitter, that's two good solid championship players just there. Sort it out Town because if we start of crap and PJ gets the boot you have to question wether Marcus Evans and Simon clegg are right for this club. I don't see no support from Evans in the transfer market, which is leaving us with just more Dissapointment.

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Mark added 12:48 - Aug 7 It may not be a straight upfront fee of course, as I would imagine Ipswich would want to base some of it on appearances given his injury record. Also, Davies can't be very fit having not participated in friendlies. I'd use that argument to knock the price down too.
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rosseden added 13:02 - Aug 7 this is close to my house, worth a look to see him play you think Phil?
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