Town boss Mick McCarthy says he has made bids for “quite a number of players” as the Blues look to strengthen ahead of the closure of the transfer window on Tuesday at 11pm. McCarthy says Town have made “millions-pound” offers with a second bid for Preston frontman Jordan Hugill of £2 million reported to have been rebuffed.

McCarthy is hoping some of the offers he has made will come off with several players having been targeted.

“I hope so but I really don’t know,” he admitted. “It’s proved every bit as difficult as I said it would be as the window opened. It is bids plural, on quite a number of players, actually.”

But he says he has so far continued to hit a brick wall: “They are millions-pound bids, but still nothing happening.”

McCarthy says owner Marcus Evans is backing him - “Yes, he is” - and that he’s happy with the bids that have been made.

“Unless somebody makes an unbelievable, multi-million pound bid and they go, ‘All right, happy days, we’ll have a bit of that because that’s nuts’,” he added.

“We’re not going to do that but we’ve made really good bids, I think, for players. But at the moment people are prepared to hold onto them and I still think come the last day somebody will go in with a really bonkers bid for somebody.”

Does he feel given the inflation in the division over the last two transfer windows no one is quite sure what to ask for a player?

“I haven’t got a clue. Jonathan Kodjia, Ross McCormack, Alex Pritchard, Scott Hogan at £15 million out of our league is just rendering me clueless as to what people are worth.

“It’s what they’re worth to spend on them, that’s exactly what it is. I really don’t know.”

He added: “It’s made it really difficult. I think the power’s with the seller now. It kind of used to be with the buyer when they weren’t that expensive - weren’t that expensive in inverted commas - but you knew if you went with £3 million or £4 million or £5 million to a Premier League club that’s what they’d be going for. Now it’s just 10s 20s, 30s and then, of course, the wages get increased.

“I’ve had a laugh this week, I’ve spoken to some Premier League lads and some lads who are higher up the league than me and they’ve said, “It’s tough at the minute’. I’ve said, ‘Really? I hadn’t noticed!’. There was me thinking it was a piece of piss.”

Will the window closing on a matchday - the Blues host Derby on Tuesday - complicate matters?

“Not really,” McCarthy continued. [Club secretary] Sally Webb, who does all the work behind the scenes, will still be doing that. If we’ve got a game and there’s something going on it’ll all have been arranged. That won’t affect it.

“It’s not me that does that. I’d say ‘Can we do this, we’ve got a player coming in’, somebody else looks after that.

“It wouldn’t alter where my focus is or what I’m concentrating on, it wouldn’t alter it at all. Makes it tougher for Sally as she’s got all the matchday stuff to do as well.”

Reflecting further on the bids which have been turned down, he added: “If you analyse where we were when we had bids for David McGoldrick, really good bids, and for Daryl Murphy, we turned them down.

“All our fans think that’s great ‘Well done’, that’s support for me, support for everybody turning £6 million or £7 million down. That’s what’s happening now, it’s just the same, the boot’s on the other foot, I’m afraid and it makes it tough.

“If they don’t want to sell them, there’s nothing you can do about it. They’re looking after their own bit.”

Does he feel that some clubs who might have been holding on for bigger offers might return to him to try to do a deal before the deadline if they haven’t received those hoped-for bids?

“It’s a bit of a risk doing that, it’s a bit of a gamble when we could have moved on and done something else because we think nothing’s going to happen,” he said.

“I don’t know what their tactics are, I think they probably just want to keep their players unless somebody blows them out of the water completely, and that’s just not going to happen.”

Meanwhile, McCarthy denied that Town had had a bid turned down by Colchester for winger Brennan Dickenson and wouldn't comment on whether he was interested in the 23-year-old: “I wouldn’t tell you if I was.”

Photo: Action Images

12th_Man added 17:03 - Jan 26 Making all the right noises. But will see what happened by Tuesday
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The_Romford_Blue added 17:04 - Jan 26 We are trying. That's all I ask.
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Mark added 17:05 - Jan 26 The market is 'inflated' because there are huge riches awaiting teams getting promoted to the Premier League, and huge fees paid by Premier League clubs to get the best players due to their massive TV money. I do not want Ipswich wasting money on expensive flops, but I do want the club to pay the right transfer fees for young players whose value is likely to increase if they do well in the Championship. That is good business, and that is what we need to do. Get the right signings from the lower leagues and overseas, not just "established Championship players" - the good ones will cost a fortune and if our budget is £1M we will keep getting rejected. After all, we got £3M for a 33-year-old ourselves in the summer!

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blueblood66 added 17:07 - Jan 26 the smell of BS is strong at the moment. I could have told you all in August that this would happen
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muccletonjoe added 17:14 - Jan 26 Agree with mark - we should be looking at the best of division one and two rather than trying to outbid championship clubs valuations.
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couldbebetter added 17:20 - Jan 26 Last minute panic
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cornishblu added 17:21 - Jan 26 Whatever position we find ourselves in it doesnt cover the fact that MM has had since Aug to do these deals and with just 5 days to go nothing of the Calibre we need to replace Murphy in sight . If ME and MM think that this waffle is enough to bring supporters back on side then they are sadly mistaken Where has outpr club gone COYB
2

jas0999 added 17:35 - Jan 26 It's all well and good putting in million pound bids but is it all hot air like previous transfer windows? Time will tell, but I'm certainly expecting at least one million pound signing prior to the closure of the window. It's all we have heard since 1 Jan so to not deliver now would be a failure.
4

dirtydingusmagee added 17:44 - Jan 26 is going to be interesting come deadline, cheers or tears ,time will tell.There will more rumours and speculation than ever this weekend .
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patthegimp added 17:47 - Jan 26 Personally I think Taylor and Diag...... are excellent and will tighten the defense as well as getting the team to play more for each other e.g. move into space. Diag may also protect Bishop a bit more Just need an inform striker and we can still make the playoffs. COYB and MMc
4

happybeingblue added 17:49 - Jan 26 its all a bit mad at the moment Barnsley sitting in 8th position having just beaten Leeds and in with a real shout of the play offs are selling half their team, its all about the £ for these players , Hourihane going to villa who look having no chance of play offs . Preston looking towards play offs will not wanna sell probably, i doubt we will have any joy as Bristol etc seem to pay more dough, thats why you need to do all this in the pre season , get your side settled so lets bear this in mind for nxt year and best not to include the likes of bishop dids williams etc as part of the squad as they are a burden as always injured.

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StuartBrett8 added 17:57 - Jan 26 I hope they all get accepted, we need several players through the door and players of quality... I'm a glass half full person and I really hope we get some in :)
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NoelTheDub added 18:23 - Jan 26 We all know the reason they wont come here its YOU the bloody so called manager the damage is done imo.Strikers you play on the wing.centre halfs at full back and as for the two stuggies in the middle I rest my case.This is all panic buys the main problem is still here we all know who that is the confidants is drained out of the few footballers at our club because of lack of playing time ie workhorses over ball players.As for our youth policy down the drain with that we all know who is getting dropped for the old guard same old story Mick just looks different on the team sheet for the fool supporters.No creavity,No width, un balanced to play your favs it has us were we are..

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MicksZzzTactics added 18:36 - Jan 26 These alleged "several" offers of between say 1-2 million, IF true, just emphasizes once again -- to 'skeptical me' personally anyway -- that all this Public Relation hype (since the beyond embarrassing defeat by the juggernaut Lincoln City) that indirectly indicates that the Dino has not only been allowed to basically "Freewheel it" through the reminder of the season 2016/2017 just as long as we stay clear of the bottom 3 and thus also extraordinarily been allowed to become "the master of his own destiny" which can only really be interpreted as if we don't somehow *magically* make into the playoffs then .... and only then .... is the growingly unpopular & dreaded Dino likely to begone!, having left on his own (read: "mutual") accord this summer (with that possible resignation thing here of course being the MAIN message in said Public Relation hype), is practically complete BS!!! ... Quite likely orchestrated by that unscrupulous Mr. Milne to stop the noise & bleeding so to speak among the fed-up fans and hopefully also see to it that not too many more of them stay away from the turnstiles or decide to tear up and/or cancel their season tickets! I mean why on earth would the in recent years notorious tight Scrooge Evans allegedly all of a sudden agree to hand out soooo many many of his beloved millions to a managerial duo he has finally lost faith in and really don't want around anymore if only the managerial part of it wasn't so expensive to sack (and also to a team which in all likelihood is really going nowhere positive this season anyway, although it isn't quite mathematical safe yet of course), instead of waiting until the summer transfer window to have a brand new manager chose HIS own kind of reinforcements??? Very bizarre if not outright improbable imho .... as even with the current injury-hampered squad, IF managed correctly mind you!, then there are at least 3 league teams much worse, more dysfunctional and just more moribund than ours in the current Championship for sure Mr. Scrooge Evans!

4

Kulturarv added 18:38 - Jan 26 "I still think come the last day somebody will go in with a really bonkers bid for somebody.” YES! Can't we for once make some bonkers bidding!?
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Len_Brennan added 18:48 - Jan 26 Last summer was the time to have put in multi-million bids.
5

NoelTheDub added 19:04 - Jan 26 Thank for the minus but the truth always hurts if anyone out there is happy with our club on or off the pitch please explain to me why.....There is not a pinch of positivity with our signings or links the usual window for ITFC.
1

TimmyH added 19:51 - Jan 26 I wish Marcus Evans would put a seven figure bid in to get McCarthy out of the club, that would be bigger than any signings this transfer window and then the club can hopefully move on. Can't help feeling the clubs getting desperate due to his incompetent management.
6

joepublic added 20:05 - Jan 26 I will happily take over Sally's match day duties for free, if it means she can concentrate on the main job of bringing in all these million plus signings!
0

PortmanTerrorist added 00:28 - Jan 27 Imagine if we had taken any of the last 3 January windows seriously. Players may have wanted to come to Suffolk and we might not even be in this league. Who would want to come into this poisonous atmosphere for a relegation scrap, if they are a player on the up? Oh yes....for the money of course! But hold on, we don't pay silly money so.....you guessed it.....prepare to be disappointed yet again folks. The MM/ME bargain basement experiment is finally about to succeed with us ending in the basement ! Let's hope some lads we are in for cannot read or have seen the training facilities, otherwise what hope is there

3

KiwiBlue2 added 00:34 - Jan 27 It wasnt that long ago that transfers were simply announced. Lately we have endless speculation, the will he/wont he sagas of the type that Keane and Jewell presided over. An early positive of MM was that in the first couple of years he did the business very quietly so as not to alert others and then the signing was simply announced. The January window is basically a dance of the desperate. I would have been very happy if an acknowledged quality central midfielder who was rated in the top 3 or 4 in the Championship in that position could have been signed even if we went up towards 3m. Little point spending 2m or more on Hudgill until such time as the central midfield is sorted out.......

1

KiwiBlue2 added 00:37 - Jan 27 Further I also wonder if we are actively scouting in Holland/France/Germany at the moment. Surely there would be suitable central midfield candidates playing over there who could be tempted.......?
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NoelTheDub added 02:29 - Jan 27 KiwiiBlue2 Cop on unless your looking for someone to rebuild the Berlin Wall or our midfield that is what your Mick is looking for.Scouts more like girlguides we have at this club look at our links..EXITING
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TR11BLU added 09:52 - Jan 27 I wouldnt give Dino a penny, rather pay off his contract.
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GiveusaWave added 10:18 - Jan 27 Given our financial situation, I am surprised we are trying to spend big money. We need 7M a year in player sales to break even. Murphy, Brown and Ford equates to 4M. We might get a further 1M from the Flores deal but that still leaves us 2M short this year.....
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