Town have rebuffed a bid from Nottingham Forest for Omari Hutchinson.

As first reported by The Athletic, Forest’s offer was worth £35 million, the same fee the Blues’ recently turned down from Brentford, the relegation release clause figure which expired midway through last month with Town now targeting a bigger bid, £40 million having previously been mentioned.

The Bees are understood to remain interested, while Everton, Inter Milan and RB Leipzig were linked earlier in the week.

Asked whether the was anything ongoing with Hutchinson at present at today’s press conference, whether there was any active interest, manager Kieran McKenna said: “I think there’s interest in lots of our players. We’ve had some strong performances over the last few years. We’ve got different interest in different players, I won’t list them all.

“He’s certainly a player of ours who has interest from different clubs, but there’s nothing really to update. He’s an Ipswich player and the club has real goals this season and everyone who is an Ipswich player at the moment has to be fully ready to contribute to those and be ready to help us have a successful year.”

The England U21 international was left out of the party which travelled to Auxerre for the last friendly of pre-season at the weekend as he “didn’t feel mentally in the right place” given the speculation regarding his future, but McKenna said he could be involved at Birmingham on Friday.

“Omari was training on Monday and trained well and then unfortunately has had a medical issue for the last two days, so hasn’t been with the group,” he said.

“Hopefully, if there’s a good recovery from that, he’ll be with us on Friday night.”

Asked how challenging it is for managers to be supportive to a player going through transfer uncertainty, McKenna reflected: “It’s about having empathy, and that needs to be the case on both sides.

"Of course, from players who have interest, and we’ve got quite a few players in the squad who have interest or different options, of course, you want to see it from their perspective and you do understand it from their perspective in terms of a player’s career being short and you want to support them in the best way with the career steps that they want to make.

“But then also as the manager, your chief responsibility is doing the right thing by the club and the right thing by the club is making sure we have the strength and the quality that we need to have a successful season.

“Of course, you want all those goals to marry up. We haven’t had too many instances over the last few years that they haven’t but the situation we’re in now, those positions, those priorities aren’t always exactly the same and that’s the natural challenge of the position that we’re in.

“I think it’s important that empathy is shown in both directions, professionalism, doing the right thing, sticking to the right values and finding the right solutions for all parties.”

Photo: Matchday Images

Dissboyitfc added 22:06 - Aug 6 Phil1969. And no point in keeping an unsettled player who wants away!
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Carberry added 22:18 - Aug 6 And all you do blues1 is come on here to call people out who don't tug their forelocks to the management, with some pretty disgraceful accusations. Try something constructive, instead of negative all the time.
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LimerickTractorBoy added 22:23 - Aug 6 Apologies Blues1, fat thumbs
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Bert added 22:28 - Aug 6 How football has changed. A youngster who still has a lot to prove and is natured by a decent club then attracts silly money……….. and may then fade away under the clutches of a club who may not have his best interests at heart. So much wrong about football today. Who knows, he may want to stay with us for all we know but the narrative suggests not.
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Denny32 added 22:39 - Aug 6 We could probably do without him in the championship, but he would be the difference in us staying in the Premiership with better players around him
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Dozzells_Bobblehat added 22:39 - Aug 6 No blueboy. You give it a rest , you tiresome bore.
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Gforce added 22:50 - Aug 6 You don't get promotion by selling off all your best players . Omari committed to a four year contract, it would be nice to see a player actually honour it for a change. Unless of course gamechanger are influencing the sale ?
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churchmans added 22:52 - Aug 6 Phuck brentford,forrest and any other club who wants our star player! Just one season omari then you will be back with us! If he goes it must be on our terms aswell as omaris! Nobody elses! I so hope he stays
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armchaircritic59 added 23:49 - Aug 6 Can certainly understand why Forest are interested, but why for gods sake even bother to put the same bid in that they would certainly have known we'd already turned down once from Brentford. Complete waste of time, and just plain stupid. Never could stand their owner, so I guess I'm not so surprised.
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bigolconnor added 06:46 - Aug 7 The bid shows the interest of a club that has more to offer, in terms of safety in the premier league , than Brentford. Omari whose head has already been turned by a less enticing offer will surely now be putting more pressure on the club to sell him. ITFC will probably have to accept a lower offer than they wanted just to please Omari. No point in him staying if he has already “gone”.

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BangaloreBlues added 07:09 - Aug 7 @ Gforce You don't let a £40-50 million player run his contract down then let him walk out the door for free...
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MickMillsTash added 07:23 - Aug 7 He understand the way McKenna wants to play - can play on the left, right and in the number 10 - Omari would be good for 15 goals and 10 Assists this year, it going to be tricky to replace that.
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Blueballs83 added 07:32 - Aug 7 @blueboy1981 'hope you get a move' What?!? Only if it's good for Ipswich. He is one year into a 4 year contract and we'll be a much better team with him than without. We are short in his position and as we know with the Hackney saga we can't just spend the money to get who we want! The profit will only be £12m for a player who is likely to be worth much more in next few years. Promotion is so important for us this year and so if keeping Omari gives us a better chance, then he should stay!

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oldelsworthyfan added 08:26 - Aug 7 Why sell him? He's 3 years to run on his contract and probably needs another season in the Championship under McKenna, because he wasn't that wonderful playing in the Premiership.
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muhrensleftfoot added 08:28 - Aug 7 These teams need to realise that we don't need to sell Hutchinson. That means only an exceptionally high bid in excess of his market value should persuade us to sell
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bluesissy added 08:31 - Aug 7 He won't be involved tomorrow now...whatever happens...probably won't play for us again...head completely turned unfortunately...
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Bazza8564 added 08:46 - Aug 7 If we can get this up to £45-50m take the money and reinvest. Sorry but in 31 games last season in the PL, Omari scored 3 and assists were down at 2. With the Lim money thats £60m net after sell ons, what other championship club has that money to spend? The lad has clearly has his head turned, time to cash in!
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EricsGate added 09:46 - Aug 7 Cheeky from the tricky trees!!!
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Michael101 added 10:02 - Aug 7 If we have two teams fighting over him then it's good news for itfc. Don't think he is ever going to play for us again.
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Gforce added 10:31 - Aug 7 @BangaloreBlues.......I wasn't talking about him running his contract down & walking away,he's still only 1 year into his contract,the least he could do is return the faith the club showed in him and at least stay for this season and help the club try to bounce back. Why the urgency to leave so soon, he's still only 21/22 with his whole career in front of him.
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Marinersnose added 11:21 - Aug 7 Sadly we will be exactly the same as Luton and sell our main assets and replace them with cheaper options with less quality. Too many fans believe that we will walk the Championship but if we sell our best players that’s highly unlikely. I feel sorry for McKenna as unless the club takes a robust stance players will leave. As some have already alluded to its difficult to keep hold of a player who wants to leave. We look threadbare going into the first game although I have confidence in our defensive unit who will be good at this level. We definitely need a player to challenge for the 9 shirt and two quality midfielders. I’m sure there will be additions but also many outgoing

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Widj123 added 13:37 - Aug 7 Typical Ipswich greedy and using a young man’s future to there own ends he clearly wants to leave and who can blame him
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armchaircritic59 added 18:09 - Aug 7 So Widj 123, would you let him go for a pork pie and a pickled egg? Just consider this, we have been the club to have taken Omari into the spotlight, that and his own abilities of course. It appears we've been asking for circa £40m having turned down a bid of £35m before. It's an extra £5m or so. I think a lot of Premier League clubs could manage that. As for Omari himself, whatever happens, I wish him the best of luck for his future wherever it is. At the very least we will have played an important role in his development, and that will reflect well on the club, especially if other youngers players are considering coming here.

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