Town boss Mick McCarthy says he gave short shrift to an audacious loan offer for last season's 27-goal Championship top scorer Daryl Murphy, the subject of much transfer speculation this summer.

Middlesbrough are understood to have had a £4.5 million offer turned down, while Sheffield Wednesday were reported to have made bid last week and Norwich City are amongst a host of other clubs from the Championship and Premier League believed to be eyeing the former Sunderland, Celtic and Waterford man.

Quizzed on the offers the Blues may have received and rejected, McCarthy was keeping typically tightlipped following Saturday’s 6-0 friendly victory at Shelbourne.

“I’m not going to tell you anything,” he said. “Has there been any interest in Daryl? There’s been loads. I’ve even had one club ring me up and ask me if we’d loan him! Knobheads. That was outstanding.”

While McCarthy kept his counsel regarding the identity of the side making the somewhat ambitious enquiry, it's believed it was Sheffield Wednesday, who are looking to strengthen following their takeover earlier in the year.

He added: “I was asked, he said you can have a one word answer, which kind of stole my thunder because he knew what I’d have told him if he’d have given me two words with which to answer, so I had to think of something else sharp and witty, which I managed!

“It was somewhat ridiculous. Maybe they were winding me up, I don’t know. I don’t think they were.”

He says the interest in Murphy comes as no surprise: “No, why would it? He had an outstanding season, 27 goals and it was fantastic. I actually prefer it when there’s interest in my players because it means they’ve played well.

“I don’t want to lose them. I think we proved that last year when we turned down £3.5 million for Tyrone Mings and sold him this year for £8 million. That’s a different ball game.

“And the same with David McGoldrick [when Leicester offered £7 million] and I’m hoping it’s going to be the same with Daryl Murphy - that any interest can be staved off.”

McCarthy says it was no shock to hear that Murphy had played well for Ireland in their summer draws with England and Scotland.

“I’d be lying if I said I saw him play because I didn’t, I didn’t watch the games I was on holiday and I was at a wedding for the other game. I heard he played well which didn’t surprise me, I think he had an outstanding year.”

He says he can see why Murphy is currently being selected ahead of Premier League players such as Shane Long.

“It depends what type of player you want playing,” he added. “I suppose he and Shane Long would be fairly similar, I think.

“I know one is playing in the Premier League but Daryl scored 27 goals and sometimes you pick the player that’s in hot form, which he was.”

Meanwhile, McCarthy says he’s pleased to have added Arsenal loanee Ainsley Maitland-Niles to his squad, the 17-year-old having made his first appearance in a Town shirt at Shelbourne.

“Delighted with him, really good,” he added. “He’s only a young ‘un but he’s a really good footballer.

“Listen, he can be Arsenal player, so that’s saying something. We’re lucky that we’ve got him.”

McCarthy dismisses the suggestion that the additions of Maitland-Niles and fellow loanee Ryan Fraser mark a change to a more wing-based style of football.

“I think we’ve always tried to have that but it’s not always worked, to be quite honest," he said.

"I signed Cameron Stewart and Alex Henshall last year for that reason and we ended up with Tabby, who is more of a left-side of midfield player there, who played 35 games. He was different class, Tabby. And Paul Anderson on the other side.

"We’re trying to get better players in all the time. We’re trying to get more goals from midfield and wide areas because we didn’t get enough last year.”

Town are next in action at Fortuna Düsseldorf on Friday evening when Murphy, McGoldrick and Christophe Berra will be back with the squad after being given additional time off having been on international duty well into June.

“Thursday we fly in, we train Thursday evening,” McCarthy said. “We train Friday morning, do a little bit of something and come back on Saturday. Just a couple of nights.”

Photo: Action Images

IndianTractorBoy added 06:33 - Jul 13 “I was asked, he said you can have a one word answer, which kind of stole my thunder because he knew what I'd have told him if he'd have given me two words with which to answer" - Mic does the best :)
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jas0999 added 06:44 - Jul 13 Unbelievable!
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Marcus added 06:47 - Jul 13 Hands off unless they're laced with gold.
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Flewitt85 added 06:50 - Jul 13 Knobheads! Brilliant, you've got to love him.
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carsey added 06:56 - Jul 13 It's really starting to bother me that Murphy is not speaking out himself about all the speculation and saying he is not going anywhere else. Like many I would understand if he gets an offer from a Premier League club with a long contract and silly money at his age he might feel obligated to take it but surely no other Championship club is going to offer more than town. No one irreplaceable but Murphy is much more than a striker and fits into the way McCarthy likes to play.

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TomJamesLW added 07:16 - Jul 13 Ridiculous, as is the interest from other championship clubs.
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ArnieM added 07:21 - Jul 13 Murphys been away on holiday. Why should he talk about work?! He's due back this week, mzybe something will be discussed with MM. But i doubt us fans will get to hear the details - as it should be .
15

Lord_Mac added 07:27 - Jul 13 >silly money at his age he might feel obligated to take it< Once again, it's not what he is obligated to take, it's what we are prepared to accept. He's under contract to us. not the other way round! And what we will accept must take into account the cost of replacement, I've heard a rumour that we will accept £5 million - I hope that's not true, as we turned down £7 million for McGoldrick.

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tomitfc added 07:46 - Jul 13 I hate all this 'I don't want to lose them'. Just come out and say he's not for sale end of. we don't need the money so do one.
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Mr_Evans added 08:04 - Jul 13 Murph on loan!? I wonder who offered that? The Murphy situation is an odd one - it's not about what money we get for him, but who we can get to replace. IMO I hope we enquire and make bids for Jonny Williams (approx £1.5m) and Adam Le Fondre (approx £2m), and if a bid for Murphy comes in that covers those signings and wages for a year then we should accept. A fit Williams is arguably the best player in the Championship, Le Fondre is now hitting his prime and with the work of TC could very easily match Murphys goal tally last year.

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Len_Brennan added 08:05 - Jul 13 He doesn't want to lose him but every player has his price. That's the nature of the football transfer market. McGoldrick would have been sold last season had Leicester added another £1m to their bid (£500,000 according to some sources). If someone offers £5k, the club will sell Murphy & it would make perfect business sense whether we like it or not. Van Persie is gone to Turkey for £4.5m & is a similar enough age. We'd have to recognise that £5m for a 33 year old who has never made it in the Premiership, or even in the Scottish Premiership, and who we signed for free, would be incredible business.

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pegasus added 08:16 - Jul 13 What price Murphy and/or McGoldrick if O'Neill becomes the new Leicester manager? He's odds on.
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bugblatter added 08:25 - Jul 13 I think in that context it is spelled "nobheads"
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tractorshark added 08:30 - Jul 13 What price Murphy/McGoldrick if O'Neill gets the Leicester job? What price McCarthy for Ireland if O'Neill gets the Leicester job? He could take that and put Roy Keane out of work at the same time.
3

ihatenorwich added 08:33 - Jul 13 He was different class Tabby!
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BlueandTruesince82 added 09:28 - Jul 13 I would have thought Knobheads? No. Either way classic Mick, I think all future press conferences should be delivered from the laughter club?
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rml123 added 09:34 - Jul 13 I'm sure Mr Milne said the bid for McGoldrick was higher than our record transfer sale (£8.1m) but it always says £7m in these stories.
0

AscotBlue added 09:45 - Jul 13 Knobheads, brilliant. Sure we'd all love to know who this was, sometimes wish Mick would divulge at least the odd clue here and there.
2

jas0999 added 09:49 - Jul 13 Carsey - but Murphy has spoken out. He is happy at Ipswich, but he has rightly raised serious concerns about our recruitment strategy. He has stated quite clearly that MM needs to be backed and that we need more quality and a bigger squad. I have said all along that his decision whether to leave will hinge on whether Evans/MM can convince him of their ambition in the transfer market. I suspect releasing so many players and selling Mings and only bringing in two loans, a very good free and a player without any experience isn't what Murphy was expecting/ wanting. He may decide therefore that another championship club has more ambition and better placed for promotion. Let's face it, few actually bother with FFP. Just my view, which before anyone says, I know isn't shared by many!!

5

jabberjackson added 10:07 - Jul 13 What I find encouraging is that from the picture, you can literally see AML has a big heart... Definitely bigger than JET's! We like that!
0

itsonlyme added 10:11 - Jul 13 Jas0999 - I think you are right when you talk about Murphy's thoughts. We came close last season and if I was Murph I would be thinking that we need to get more quality in if we want to go up. Not sure what the plans are but so far we have shed several players and not replaced many of them! Perhaps I am worrying unnecessarily so, but I feel we are desperately short at this moment in time!

6

Surco72 added 10:43 - Jul 13 Tabby was a different class , a lot lower than the players playing in the rest of the playoff sides !! Without improving the squad which wasn't big enough last year and ran out of steam badly after Christmas with a few injuries , we will lose our big stars they have already stated as much . For me I cannot see us spending a fee on Williams when he cannot play for more than a handful of games without injury his whole career , far too risky

1

Michael11 added 10:48 - Jul 13 Apparently it was Sheffield Wednesday who wanted him on loan. Absolutely incredible to try and pull that off. However, it looks like they're signing Patrick Bamford on loan now which is a top signing.
2

Lightningboy added 11:03 - Jul 13 I wonder if some of these stories are just lazy journalism..they see that Murphy and McG haven't travelled with the team to Ireland and then assume that they're on their way out..it's a wonder Berra hasn't been linked too. Let's hope we can put an end to this unsettling nonsense once and for all this week.
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BlueandTruesince82 added 12:58 - Jul 13 As previously stated apart from Ando all those released players were 9on the fringes at best. As I said last you, we like all clubs will add more players as the season goes so basing the numbers lost on the compliment we had at the end of the season is a false economy. Hunt Jr, Chaplow, Varney, Kenny all arrived mid season because as all clubs do we analysed where we need to strengthen as the season goes. This is a fact of lie in the champ and by looking at it the way you do Jas you are manipulating the figures to suit your argument. List the 13 leavers and then look at A, which of them could be considered 1st team, B which could be considered squad and C which were added from Dec onwards last season and you get a more accurate picture. We has several back and forths this time last season where we both said basically exactly the same thing as now, you attested the squad wasn't big enough/good enough to make play offs. We did. Now here we are a year later and its the same thing Step back and bigger picture, to much paranoia amongst fans atm, I cant help but feel some of you are on the Jamaican Woodbines to illicit such worry. There is much merit in your argumenta s me saying that the negative vibes from Blueboy etc messed with the clubs feng shui, gave off bad ju ju and ultimately led us to falla t play offs

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