TWTD understands Town are closing in on the signing of Salford City's Czech keeper Vaclav Hladky.

The 30-year-old was ever-present for Salford during 2020/21, his first season at the club, making 53 appearances, including their victory in the delayed 2019/20 EFL Trophy final.

Capped by the Czech Republic at U16, U17, U18, U19 and U20 levels, Hladky claimed the League Two Golden Glove award after keeping 22 clean sheets, a place in the PFA League Two Team of the Year and was named the Ammies’ fans’ Player of the Year.

Hladky was a young player with hometown club Zbrojovka Brno, featuring for their B side and then their first team and spending loan spells with MSK Breclav, Sparta Brno, Lisen and Town’s 2002 UEFA Cup opponents Slovan Liberec, a move which became permanent in 2015.

After four years largely as second-choice at Liberec, the 6ft 2in tall keeper moved on to St Mirren in January 2019 where he made 59 starts before departing for Salford in August last year, signing a two-year deal.

Town are on the lookout for two keepers this summer with Dai Cornell already having departed and training with Peterborough, who he is set to join, and the Blues' current Czech number one Tomas Holy also told he can move on at the end of the season.

The Blues have been linked with a number of keepers including Dundee United’s Benjamin Siegrist, Charlton’s Ben Amos, who is understood to be close to joining Wigan, former Portsmouth man Craig MacGillivray, who is being tipped to replace him at the Valley, and Liverpool youngster Caoimhín Kelleher, who is now not expected to be allowed to move out on loan.

The deal could be completed as soon as Monday with Hladky likely to become the club's fifth signing of the summer with chief executive Mark Ashton having said, following yesterday's addition of Macauley Bonne, that the Blues "are moving forward with one or two other additions as well that we hope to get over the line as soon as possible”.

Photo: Action Images

Dog added 20:49 - Jun 27 Blues1 - you are wrong i am afraid. Salford pay more than most of scottish premiership. Rooney left Aberdeen to play for non league Salford to earn 4 grand a week. Aberdeen could not match it. https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url= https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/gary-neville-defends-salf Last season we signed Cornell from league 2 Northampton. Yes they got promoted but he was league 2. Contract cancelled and the bulk of the messages was he was league 2 standard. Now if i have not played in a league above league 2 and i was 30 then i suspect i know i will be bench warming. Hopefully he is a gem, a really late bloomer but i doubt it.

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Oldboy added 20:53 - Jun 27 Yes please. Excellent keeper.
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blueboy1981 added 21:30 - Jun 27 A complete mixture of hissy fit, nonsense, pathetic, and thankfully some sensible comments on here again. It takes all sorts I guess, and we have them all.
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blues1 added 22:04 - Jun 27 Dog. Wake up. Foitball league clubs are restricted as to how much they can pay in wages. Last year due to the salary cap. This year now the cap has been scrapped can only spend 60% of income. So no, Its you who's wrong. And as I said there were bigger teams from elsewhere( not in scotland by the way), who wanted him. Had u watched the documentary ud have known that.
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dirtydingusmagee added 22:41 - Jun 27 think its going to be funny listening to Mick Mills pronouncing some of the names this season .
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DavefromWatford added 23:04 - Jun 27 Just read on Football League World that Cook is not pursuing Siegrist, I don`t understand why, he would fight for the No 1 jersey with Hladky.
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Dog added 00:24 - Jun 28 Blues1 - how much do you think sky sponsor them for. Their turnover for a league 2 side is greater than half of league 1, thanks to sky and documentaries. Thats why they can pay league 1 equivalent salaries.
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Dog added 00:28 - Jun 28 They now have a substantial sponsor deal with Talk Talk. Anyway lets hope he is a late bloomer and not another Cornell
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JimInGreensboro added 00:54 - Jun 28 Ok, 22 clean sheets, but we all know offence is the best defence, followed by a genuinely good defence, and then the keeper. Let's hope we have all 3. But good on him.
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Tractor_Boy_in_HK added 05:04 - Jun 28 Blues1 - thanks for the comment. On MacGillivray, he seems shaky every time I've seen him and distribution was erratic, including against us this past season. I reckon if we signed Hladky last year, people who hate because he's a League 2 would be saying how great it is we're signing a Scottish Premier League player (who was given credit for keeping them up).

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atty added 07:49 - Jun 28 Happy with the signings thus far, but can't say l know too much about this guy. Anyway, we have to trust Cooks judgement and the stats of course! Btw who is our chief scout/ recruitment lead now? Also we have to bear in mind we're restricted to 60% of turnover fo4 players wages. If we were keeping with that limit last season, and we've got rid of 20 players thus far, including a lot of senior pros, with a smaller squad we should be should competitive on wages in Lge 1 at least.

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ArnieM added 09:16 - Jun 28 Dog: here you go , have a read of this , then say he's rubbish ! https://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/17901289.st-mirren-goalkeeper-vaclav-hladky
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blues1 added 09:38 - Jun 28 Dog. He isnt a late bloomer. Hes simply a good goalkeeper. As I said, there were other bigger teams than Salford in for him. They had to fight to get him to sign. As for Adam rooney. He had to take a substantial wage cut to join them. But he went bcse he was excited by the project there. Again, had u seen the documentary youd have known that. He said so himself on there. And I'd believe him over some tenuous internet link that you can put on here. And income didnt come into it at that time anyway.Both these players were signed when the salary cap was coming in, so they were limited to a £1.25m wage budget,compared to the £2.5m in lge1. So u tell me how they could pay lge1 wages. Simply not possible.

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