Town are closing in on the loan signing of Barnsley winger Luke Thomas.

The 21-year-old has been on the Blues’ radar for a number of weeks but with the Championship Tykes now having given the OK for the former Derby and Cheltenham man, who has been in their matchday squad on a regular basis if not a starter, to depart.

Thomas, who has made eight starts and 14 sub appearances for the South Yorkshiremen this season, is expected to travel to Portman Road today to complete the formalities and the switch could be confirmed later in the day.

The Soudley-born wideman, who is left-footed but tends to operate on the right, was with West Brom as a schoolboy before moving on to Cheltenham with whom he made one senior sub appearance.

Thomas moved on to Derby County in 2016 and spent time on loan at Gloucester City and Coventry while a Rams player.

Although he made only two sub appearances for Derby, his form while on loan with the Sky Blues during 2018/19 persuaded Barnsley to pay £1.2 million for his services in the summer following that campaign.

In total, 5ft 6in tall Thomas has made 34 starts and 30 sub appearances for Barnsley, scoring twice.

Last month, Sunderland and Oxford United were reported to be among a number of League One clubs keen on making a move for the former England U20 international on a permanent basis.

Town expect to make Preston’s Josh Harrop their first signing of the January transfer window prior to finalising the Thomas deal with the 25-year-old having been at the club yesterday to undergo his medical and formalise his switch.

The League One salary cap is understood to have added to the red tape relating to a move, while the Blues will also be carefully scrutinising his medical results with Harrop having suffered cruciate ligament damage in October 2018.

Having turned 21 since New Year's Day 2020, Thomas doesn't count as a senior players with regards to the salary cap.

Photo: Action Images

Theipswich added 14:28 - Jan 19 More loan signings...history has shown us that it is the hallmark of a desperate manager. We have our own players and why did we get Bennetts then ? Questions need to be raised about the fitness programme within the club..something is not right and it isn't just serendipity but bad organisation in my opinion..it's not quite right. We are badly run, badly managed and in a bad way.....

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Linkboy13 added 14:29 - Jan 19 Spot on Surco 72 been saying this for ages. We keep signing these lightweight fancy dans who can't play for ninety minutes. We're already carrying the likes of Dozzell, Judge etc who do very little when we haven't got the ball.
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DifferentGravy added 14:47 - Jan 19 Not about Norwood finding his scoring boots......its about actually creating chances for them. How many chances was he given at Burton.......playing up front on his own against 4 defenders......with balls played over the top!?! Tactics.....
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timkatieadamitfc added 15:09 - Jan 19 Undoubtedly most of the better players at this club are midfield/strikers, our full backs at the moment are ward - ok and chambers- not good enough( with back up kenlock -ok at best and KVY- looked great for 9 games but nobody knows when he's going to play again. So can't understand why we signing more forwards when it is clearly our defence that needs sorting first, agree with what an awful lot of posters are saying, it's the system not the players. I believe we DEFINITELY have the players in midfield/ forward to push us up league if they were played to strengths and not just a rigid 4 3 3, EVERY OTHER TEAM IN THE WORLD WILL BE ABLE TO SWITCH FORMATIONS DURING A GAME TO COUNTERACT OPPOSITION. Not us apparently/sadly

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timkatieadamitfc added 15:13 - Jan 19 Spot on differentgravy
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