Town have been unable to complete the loan signing of Brighton centre-half Connor Goldson before the closure of the summer transfer window, a move which appeared almost certain to go ahead this morning until the Seagulls’ deal to sign Club Brugge defender Stefano Denswil collapsed.

Brighton have been unable to recruit another centre-half before the 11pm deadline, which would have seen the Seagulls allow Goldson to join Town for the season.

TWTD understands Goldson, who was also interesting Sheffield United and a number of other Championship sides, travelled to Suffolk last night and, as reported earlier, underwent a medical at Playford Road this morning with the clubs having agreed terms on a deal which would have seen the Blues pay a very significant proportion of the former Shrewsbury defender’s wage.

The framework of the proposed deal was agreed a fortnight ago when TWTD first reported that Town had made an approach for the one-time Cheltenham loanee, however, with Albion unwilling to confirm until they had signed another central defender.

A previous Brighton move for a defender broke down prior to Club Brugge calling off Denswil’s switch with that deal all but done - the Dutchman had undergone a medical and terms had been agreed - after the Belgian side discovered another of their players, Frenchman Benoît Poulain, would be unavailable for longer than had previously been anticipated due to an injury.

With the Goldson loan deal thrown into doubt, the Blues looked at other central defensive options including Derby’s Jason Shackell, although Town had concerns regarding the former Canary’s fitness. The 33-year-old has played only one game this season following back surgery towards the end of 2016/17.

The Blues had also shown interest in Nottingham Forest’s Jack Hobbs, as was reported over the weekend, but the East Midlanders were unwilling to allow the 29-year-old to move on loan.

With the Goldson deal looking less likely to be completed and having been unable to progress moves for other central defensive options, the Blues made a late afternoon approach for Callum Connolly, a player we understand Town have been eyeing for 18 months and who was a target last summer.

Although primarily a right-back rather than a centre-half, Connolly, who has been signed on a season-long loan, is viewed as giving Town additional defensive strength in depth with Jordan Spence and Dominic Iorfa - both also chiefly right-backs - among the options to play at centre-half during the current central defensive injury crisis which sees skipper Luke Chambers, Tommy Smith and Adam Webster all sidelined.

While Town will not be able to sign a player currently with a club after this evening’s 11pm deadline, they could still recruit someone who is out of contract if manager Mick McCarthy believes he requires further defensive cover until one or more of his senior centre-halves have made their return with Chambers likely to be the first to get back to action.

After the Blues skipper suffered his ankle injury at Millwall, the expectation was that he might be back a couple of weeks after the international break.

Meanwhile, serial Town loanee Jonny Williams joined Sunderland from Crystal Palace on a season-long lan just before the 11pm deadline.

Photo: Action Images

prebbs007 added 05:11 - Sep 1 Pathetic !!!!!!!
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Essexnblue added 05:16 - Sep 1 Where were these clowns when we had won 5 out of 5? If you read the story or better still read Blues1 account of his thoughts then you will see that the root cause is Brightons inability to sign a centre half. Are you really expecting Gary Cahill or John Stones to come here on loan as cover for the season? Get real, move on COYB
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dirtydingusmagee added 05:49 - Sep 1 oh well ,part 2.
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braveblue added 06:01 - Sep 1 Bit of good feeling around then Evans strikes assisted by the no plan B manager.
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Len_Brennan added 06:56 - Sep 1 Some posters on here pointing out that it was Brighton's fault & not the fault of the club that we now find ourselves in the position where we have no senior centre half for at least a month & at best will only have one for the guts of another month after that & even then they won't be match fit for another few games, so it'll be well in November before we can get an experienced centre half pairing playing together, hopefully. That's Brighton's fault apparently and the club had no responsibility to get its own house in order & ensure that it didn't leave itself open to any such possibilities. That's great news for me as I head into work this morning, armed with the knowledge that I can lay the blame at the feet of all in sundry, when I fail to deliver what is expected of me. No need for deliverable contingency planning any more, just a simple "sorry, we can't go ahead with the project now, because X let me down" will suffice.

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christiand added 06:59 - Sep 1 Connolly may prove a very astute signing, but we were in need of a central defender with experience. Just once again it looks like the club has gone for the cheap option instead of the 'right' option for the team's needs!
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Woodbridgian added 07:56 - Sep 1 Now can MM stop the rubbish about Woolfenden being too young and play him!
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Woodbridgian added 07:58 - Sep 1 Now can MM stop the rubbish about Woolfenden being too young and play him!
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Warkys_Tash added 08:10 - Sep 1 Why dont all the doom & gloom merchants calm down & stop the endless negativity??! There is obviously a dearth of decent CB otherwise Man City wouldnt have bid for J Evans! So to get Goldson in agreed, medical done was good work. Brighton had the power in this deal no us. Mick moved quick to get in a plan B, Connolly. He obviously tried to get Olsson which would have been a good signing but clib didnt want to release him. As one said on here Goldson is disappointed no doubt as are we all.

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Len_Brennan added 08:38 - Sep 1 Warky: I agree with a lot of what you say, but it's not being a doom & gloom merchant to highlight that we left ourselves short by only having 3 senior centre halves to start with & then leaving ourselves dependent on others on the last day of a long transfer window to bring in an essential player. It would have been a bad idea had we been looking for a 4th centre half when the other 3 were fit, but in the circumstances it was foolhardy. As I say, I agree that Mick did his best with Goldson & he was unlucky with how it turned out, it's just that we've had momentum from a great start & now we'll have avoidable uncertainty up to January. If we're lucky, somebody decent will be released on a free over the coming days that we can pick up.

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baxter7 added 08:41 - Sep 1 Our new nickname should be the cilla club surprise surprise we never got our man yet again
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Guru_of_Ipswich added 09:18 - Sep 1 It amazes me how some of our 'supporters' can gloss over a few facts and will beat the club down with any little thing. I suppose the fact that a deal was Agreed 2weeks ago doesn't matter and the fact that the club was just about to announce it when Brighton pulled the plug is also the clubs fault. I would say the club done bloody well to get a highly rated versatile defender in at short notice. But hey that doesn't fit in some 'supporters' agenda to slate the club every single minute. FFS cheer up, we have had a great august and the budgies are in a mess.

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OldClactonBlue added 09:32 - Sep 1 Now we will see how committed is to the youngsters. For those of you who go with McCarthy's reluctance to play a youngster at Centre Back I would remind you that Wark, Peddeltey, Butcher and Osman all started as young Centre Backs (Beattie started at Left Back before switching inside). They all turned out alright!! It's whether a manager is committed to youth players. You can make your own mind up about ours.

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BlueArrow added 09:48 - Sep 1 Was he gonna cost too much Gold son
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baxter7 added 10:13 - Sep 1 Our new nickname the cilla club surprise surprise we never got our man yet again
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Len_Brennan added 10:21 - Sep 1 Guru of Ipswich : Firstly, what's with the quote marks around the word supporters in your post? Are you suggesting that any of us who express frustration that we have no available senior centre half, nor will have for weeks, after a long transfer window are less of a supporter of the club that you? Deals are agreed all the time, and many fall through all the time before the player is signed, for many reasons. Agreeing things in principle means very little until the dotted line is signed. Ultimately it makes no difference what was agreed 2 weeks ago; we are without an experienced centre half for the next months at least and will only have one, at best, for the following month. We only had 3 anyway, despite Mick saying regularly that he wants to have 2 players for every position and Webster & Smith had been identified as middle/long term injuries weeks ago. It should not have gotten to the stage that we were waiting on events elsewhere to go our way, on the evening of the last day of the window, in order to have ONE centre half come into the club. If I sell my house, having agreed to buy another from a couple who themselves are looking to buy a new home and then commit, in writing, to move out by a certain date, before the seller of my new house has completed the purchase of their house; it will be my fault alone if I find myself homeless should the other deal be delayed or fall through. No point telling my kids that it's the sellers fault for not getting their deal done in time for us.

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heathen66 added 10:31 - Sep 1 This could be a real missed opportunity bearing in mind our good start. We should never have let this drag on for so long (2 weeks) and told Brighton we will not be wanting Goldson and will persue other options as we cannot wait any longer for them to get their fingers out. What does worry me however is what seems to be a lack of scouting. Apart from the Rangers boys, our interests are either players that have previously played under Mick or play for a club managed by Micks mates (Houghton / Warnock). Other clubs seem to have a vast scouting network across Europe and are able to attract players almost at will. IMO I am sure Mick did not want a permanent signing to rival Chambers' inclusion for every match when fit (just my opinion). At least we can get on with what we have and have no other distractions

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Razor added 10:45 - Sep 1 I would have liked us to go and bought an experienced central defender as it seems we may have one centre half with a dodgy ankle and one with a bad back so the number of games from these guys may be limited. I think we are now exposed which is a shame after our great start and the fact we now at least seem to have some forwards who can score goals.
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Crawfordsboot added 11:15 - Sep 1 All those who keep spouting the "we should have got this sorted weeks ago line" need to get real. Do you not understand that in this window there is not a pool of available unattached players. For us to sign a decent centre half then another club has to be prepared to let one go and that in turn depends on them having someone coming in. It is a chain reaction, not unlike the chain encountered when buying and selling houses. Inevitably this means it all goes to the wire and if one fails to complete there can be consequences for everyone in the chain. Thats the real world but I guess its much easier for the simple minded to say MM and ME are crxp!

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TimmyH added 11:21 - Sep 1 Should have got another CB in and by all sounds and purposes Goldson would have fitted the bill (maybe a slight gamble with his health problems) also I would have liked competition for Skuse's position whether this would be by loan, permanent signing or one of our youth players coming though. Rather disappointing for me to get a 19 year old in when we already have 2 RB's in Spence and Iorfa, not sure Mick knows what he's currently doing regarding our defense at the moment.

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Len_Brennan added 12:03 - Sep 1 Crawfordsboot : "simple minded" - another one who has to resort to insulting other posters who don't agree with them. "inevitably ... it all goes down to the wire" you say. Were there no new signings or transfers concluded over the summer months before yesterday? How did we manage to get any of our new signings without having to wait until 11pm last night? Like with buying a house, if you need to have one by a certain date to ensure you're not homeless or will lose financing, you walk away from a deal that's dragging on - I did just that when my wife was pregnant with our daughter - and look elsewhere while you still can.

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Kirbmeister added 12:05 - Sep 1 Yes can't think why we didn't sign at least one of the many quality centre backs that's clubs are prepared to let go and were all hammering on Micks door pleading for us to sign them up.
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jas0999 added 12:15 - Sep 1 The club have rightly been praised for the excellent additions to our striker ranks. Equally, they should be criticised for failing to sign a CB. No fewer than three recognised centre backs left in the Summer in addition to knowledge that two of the remaining three are injury prone. There has been plenty of time to sign a new player. It shouldn't have been left to the final two weeks. Very poor from McCarthy and Evans. No plan B.

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dubblue added 12:19 - Sep 1 Disappointing and tbh the club is somewhat at fault - when you are considering a loanee or a signing you have to ask is the player available or is it a case the player might be available but only if the other club can replace him. If the latter you need a plan B - what is disappointing is that there does not appear to have been a plan B to get a CB. Anyways still say COYB!

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Ferguson added 12:52 - Sep 1 Shame about the Brighton boy but on the bigger picture, if memory serves, Evans negotiates the deals. If he's anything like most buyers I know he will want to be in control and hold on 'til the last minute to get the deal done as cheaply as possible. If he wants to stay in this division he's going to have to get used to spending money when it's needed. In this case money had to be spent when the club knew the injury situation would make us vulnerable. As a result we end up, as MM said the other day, with square pegs in round holes all over again. Hey ho. Thank Bart, MM, God and the 12 apostles for the 12 points we've got on the board !

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