Town are close to signing striker Frank Nouble from Wolves. The 21-year-old, who is set to sign a contract until the summer of 2014, has been at Portman Road for a medical this morning, a fee having been agreed.

The 6ft 3in tall Londoner began his career with Chelsea’s youth set-up before joining West Ham in 2009.

While with the Hammers, he spent spells on loan at West Brom, Swindon, Swansea, Barnsley, Charlton, Gillingham and Barnsley again.

England U17 and U19 international - who also qualifies for the Ivory Coast via his parents - made only six starts and 13 sub appearances while at Upton Park, scoring just the one senior goal.

In the summer he moved on a free transfer to Wolves, signing a two-year deal, but has made only two sub appearances in the Championship, in addition to one start, two games from the bench and one goal in the Capital One Cup.

Nouble would appear to be a direct replacement for former loanee Tyrone Barnett, whose spell from Peterborough was cut short by a knee injury, providing competition for Daryl Murphy.

Manager Mick McCarthy added two more strikers - Aaron Mclean and David McGoldrick - to his squad last week and on Saturday confirmed that he was still chasing ex-loanee DJ Campbell, who went back to QPR last week.

The Blues would now appear to have a surfeit of frontmen with Nathan Ellington having returned to the club yesterday after his loan from Scunthorpe and Murphy, Michael Chopra, Jason Scotland, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas - who McCarthy views as primarily a striker - Ronan Murray and the injured Paul Taylor already at Portman Road.

Photo: Action Images

GREYBLUE added 10:38 - Jan 8 Another striker !! Any leaving ???
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PaphosBlue added 10:43 - Jan 8 Does this mean MM has given up on DJ? Either way we must now look to move on Scotland, Ellington and perhaps Chopra as well!
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Stato added 10:46 - Jan 8 Hopefully this signals the end of Chopra a town and at long last we have some height in the box. Our striking options have been too weak for the last 2/3 seasons at least.
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casanovacrow added 10:46 - Jan 8 Backup for Murph
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StuartBrett8 added 10:48 - Jan 8 Good age, Good height, now get some wingers in to get some crosses into the box
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brian_a_mul added 10:52 - Jan 8 Nouble is a good striker with great potential. He has good experience so far & at 21 and 6'3 definitely one for the future. Would be good back up & eventual replacement for Murphs! Could potentially be a partnership with Nouble and snappy/ quick Taylor. Good to see Mick already has one one on the future.
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paulcooperisgod added 10:52 - Jan 8 Ok hands up who saw the headline IPSWCH SIGN WOLVES STRIKER and thought we had signed e banks blake??
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portman23 added 10:57 - Jan 8 POW!!
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bohslegend added 10:59 - Jan 8 @paulcooperisgod Absolutely! Nice one Phil TWTD - you knew what you were doing ;-)
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PaphosBlue added 10:59 - Jan 8 Just looked at his stats.....not what yiou would call a prolific goalscorer but hey he is young, quick and strong and MM knows him so thats good enough for me!
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joe9087 added 11:02 - Jan 8 Not played a great deal of football so far, but young, hungry I'm sure, and adds the height and presence up front that we've been without for so long. A positive move, but worth a gamble.
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bluefeast added 11:05 - Jan 8 We will be linked with everyone , i cant see this unless there are players lined up to leave. It would give us 7 or 8 strikers. We need wingers and a creative centre mid. COYB
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bennyitfc added 11:05 - Jan 8 Kieron Dyer has left QPR!
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JoshTheLad added 11:06 - Jan 8 Phil, you missed Paul Taylor off your list of Strikers (albeit injured) and Daryl Murphy
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StuartBrett8 added 11:07 - Jan 8 I feel sorry for Kieron Dyer, at his peak he was linked to Man Utd but his injury record is just awful
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Lightningboy added 11:09 - Jan 8 We seem to be going from one extreme to another with our managers..Keane was all defenders,Jewell midfielders and now Mick's strikers. I'd prefer quality over quantity tbh.
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bennyitfc added 11:13 - Jan 8 I think we shouldn't worry about seeing the back od Chopra, Scotland, Murray, Ellington etc., but I'd like to see us keep hold of JET if possible...he has more to offer and with McCathy barking at him from the sideline I think he can get the best out of him
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beerhelps added 11:13 - Jan 8 I was just about to post a sarcasic 'whatever happened to Major Cleggs signee prevention stratagy' piece - as we are all wollowing in a large pool of new-boy excitment, but then I remembered the 'Financial Fair Play' thingy....... Anyone (Phil?) know where the club is on players wages vs turnover? Or when those figures are due?
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jas0999 added 11:15 - Jan 8 Never understood PJ's approach in preferring to have just a two or three strikers at the club ... other than the fact he preferred to play one up front. If you look at the better sides in the league - they have lots of striking options. Clearly MM has realised our strikers are not good enough and has acted. This is great news. We now have many quality options. BUT must now look to add creativity to the midfield, because even Rooney / RVP would struggled to score goals without creative players in the middle!

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CornardBlue added 11:16 - Jan 8 Like the way Mick works in transfer market, does not say a word until they are signed.
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Urchin added 11:17 - Jan 8 essexblue 2 - not sure I agree at moving on Chopra ...yet. I would loose Murray. Really think he's only ever going to be a 3rds choice reserve and should be playing more in league 1. I would also loose Carson.
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Special_A added 11:17 - Jan 8 21 he looks more like 31 Always like a 6ft + player though, needed in the championship!
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Michael11 added 11:23 - Jan 8 Never really rated him from what i've seen but i'll back Mick to the moon and back, hopefully turns out to be a good player for us! COYB!
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Tractorog added 11:25 - Jan 8 Our last 3 managers could not be offered a midfielder without wanting to buy them. Mick's weakness seems to be strikers. I guess without DJ we need a striker, but this is the third of the January window and we're only just out of the first week! I guess as long as he can develop the defenders through coaching it is a bit of a "meh! who cares?" weakness but if we start leaking goals again it could become annoying.

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backwiththeboysagain added 11:28 - Jan 8 Not the Wolves striker I first thought we had :(. Must mean we have to get rid of Ellington, Scotland and possibly Chopra, who hasn't fulfilled his potential, who in his own words wanted 30 goals.
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