Town keeper Aro Muric is closing in on a move to Çaykur Rizespor, according to various reports in Turkey.

A deal which would see Muric return to the Turkish Süper Lig, where he previously had a spell on loan with Adana Demirspor while a Manchester City player, is said to be largely done and could be finalised soon.

The 26-year-old endured a tough first season at Portman Road having signed from Burnley for £8 million plus £2 million in add-ons in July last year and his exit this summer has been widely anticipated with clubs in Italy and France having previously been linked.

Muric’s 2024/25 was ended prematurely by a shoulder injury which required surgery and the Kosovo international hadn’t been involved in pre-season until he came on as a half-time sub during last Tuesday’s 2-1 victory over Charlton at Colchester.

The Swiss-born keeper wasn’t with the squad at Auxerre on Saturday with Alex Palmer starting and Christian Walton and David Button on the bench.

“He’s training well and he’s done well in the minutes that he’s had. He did well when he came on against Charlton,” manager Kieran McKenna said of Muric.

“Alex and Christian have done the whole pre-season and are a little bit ahead of him fitness-wise and match fitness-wise, but he’s training well and getting stronger day by day, so he’s ready and fit should we need him and should the opportunities arise.”

Rize-based Çaykur Rizespor finished ninth in Süper Lig last season.

Photo: IMAGO/Sportimage via Reuters Connect

IndependentlyBlue added 23:48 - Aug 3 Sad it never worked out for him here. Blows hot and cold but on his day a cracking keeper, just not enough of those days.
20

jazzback added 23:51 - Aug 3 A move works well all round. Decent keeper but once fans turned on him it was best he leaves. Hopefully get most of the money back we paid. Frees up a squad place, and his wages would of been high
15

runningout added 23:59 - Aug 3 Best keeper we have.. Aro will do well wherever he goes
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RobITFC added 00:05 - Aug 4 How much ?
3

Monkey_Blue added 00:16 - Aug 4 Is it a loan or permanent? It’s a shame because he is the best keeper at the club. The stats show he was better than palmer and his distribution is on a different level. The idiots who booed him the other night must have very sad lives.
14

emergencylime added 00:18 - Aug 4 I'm relying on highlights here due to living abroad, but while capable of making game-changing saves, he didn't seem to talk with the back line much. Any keeper brought in and starting for a team struggling to get out the bottom 3 is always going to be a target. I think he'd be stronger for a season in the Champ, but we have 3 first choice keepers now so something has to give.

13

Clemcc added 00:19 - Aug 4 Why am I looking at twtd after midnight??? Always looking for ITFC news lol never know when they will come. COYB
3

Trequartista added 00:31 - Aug 4 Hmmm Çaykur Rizespor doesn't sound like a team that are going to pay 4 or 5 million for him. I'm guessing its a loan and we can kiss goodbye to the £8-10m we shelled out for him.
5

armchaircritic59 added 01:07 - Aug 4 I'm not sure that " super Lig " is an appropriate name for the top Turkish division, given that on Opta world League ratings it stands at place 20, 14 places behind our Championship in 6th. If it wasn't for the presence of Galatasary and Fenerbahce, it would be a fair bit worse. Rizespor are ranked 440 places below ITFC in the Opta world club rankings and finished a whopping 46 points behind champions Galatasary and 35 behind second placed Fenerbahce in the Turkish league last season. He certainly would be taking a fair sized drop in class, might help to get his confidence back. There is a really decent keeper in there, waiting to get out. So now we know more about the Turkish Premier League in general and Rizespor in particular, than is probably healthy!

5

tractorboybig added 06:24 - Aug 4 best for all I think
7

Bluearmy_81 added 06:36 - Aug 4 Made errors last season so bad they wouldn’t have been out of place in a Sunday league game. Back 4, understandably, had zero confidence in him. McKenna sticking with him for so long was his biggest mistake of last season. So glad he’s going.
17

Stato added 06:40 - Aug 4 He was individually resonsible for too many of the goals we conceded last season.
11

BlueRuin69 added 06:43 - Aug 4 Awful season last year, good riddance!
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Bluearmy_81 added 06:50 - Aug 4 Oh look, that’s his face when he’s made another massive howler costing us another game!
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Mark added 07:09 - Aug 4 Çaykur Rizespor's stadium capacity is 15,558. I read their record signing is under 3m Euros. I wonder if this is a free transfer or a nominal fee to get Muric off our wage bill? It is sad it did not work out.
5

bobble added 07:20 - Aug 4 Town have had some very good goalies over the years, but this bloke wasnt one of them..a goalie needs to be the loudest player on his team, the captain of the defence and crazy brave, with lightining fast distribution and vision...
4

TownSupporter added 07:21 - Aug 4 Unfortunately I reckon we’ll be making a loss on this transfer whether loan or full transfer. Was not a good buy for us. For the best he moves on.
3

tetchris added 07:26 - Aug 4 I hope the person who made the decision to sign him has been sacked. One of the worst signings since mark fish and ulrich le pen
9

RegencyBlue added 07:27 - Aug 4 Best for both parties to move on from a transfer that hasn’t worked for either of them.
0

SpiritOfJohn added 07:28 - Aug 4 Free transfer and a friendly against Çaykur Rizespor coming up next pre-season. Echoes of Sereni...
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jas0999 added 07:36 - Aug 4 Good luck to him. Still think he’s a good goalkeeper, but simply didn’t work out here. Club doing a great job moving players on this summer, with Hutch and Broadhead likely to go as well.
2

ringwoodblue added 07:42 - Aug 4 The guy could play brilliantly for 89 mins and then have one howler and that’s all some fans would remember. Not a bad keeper just didn’t work out for him at Town. Not one of our better bits of business I would say
8

Alphawhiskey added 07:52 - Aug 4 He made a few bad mistakes, but so did a lot of the outfield players too! Morsey and his stupid tackle at the end of the Fulham game? A game we would have won! At the end of day it didn't work out, get off his back, There is a very good keeper in there... We need players in anyway, and this week too.
1

ImAbeliever added 07:53 - Aug 4 Looks like there’s a bit of cost cutting going on…..
1

Blue_In_Boston added 08:01 - Aug 4 I'm not fan of Muric, but as others say, 'blows hot and cold', or 'brilliant for 89 minutes then a disaster for 1'. Top class keepers are consistent, reliable, dependable - all of those type of words. If Muric spread fear amongst us fans, imagine how our defence felt?
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