Town have confirmed Nathan Broadhead’s departure for Wrexham for a fee understood to be an initial £7.5 million rising to £10 million, the Wales international signing a four-year deal.

Broadhead’s departure comes as no surprise with the newly promoted Championship side having made an approach just over a fortnight ago and with the player keen on a return to the club where he was a schoolboy, but with Town unwilling to agree a deal at that point due to their lack of attacking options.

On Sunday, the Blues completed the loan addition of Chuba Akpom from Ajax and are near to signing Como frontman Iván Azón and their recruitment appears to have given the green light to Broadhead’s exit.

The forward missed Tuesday’s Carabao Cup tie at Bromley having reported sick on the day of the game and otherwise would have played.

“It’s been a long time coming and I’m delighted to join the club,” the 27-year-old told the Red Dragons website.

“Belief is going to be the biggest thing for us this season. We want to get everyone from North Wales down to the STōK Cae Ras and to show that belief in us.”

Manager Phil Parkinson added: “I’m delighted to welcome Nathan to the club, he’s a local boy who had a real desire to come and play for his hometown club. We’re all looking forward to working with him in the coming seasons.”

Rumours of Wrexham interest in Broadhead, who had only a year left on his contract, had been circulating all close season with the former Everton man having been in and out of the Town side last season in the Premier League.

Last summer, Broadhead was close to moving to former loan club Sunderland on deadline day but the Blues’ move to sign Reiss Nelson on loan from Arsenal broke down and the Bangor-born attacker remained at Portman Road.

A key man in the back-to-back promotions following a £1.5 million move from Everton - the Toffees are believed to be due a percentae of Town’s profit - in January 2022, Broadhead made 56 starts and 28 substitute appearances for the Blues, scoring 23 goals.

Broadhead is Wrexham’s biggest ever signing, beating the £5 million recently paid to Nottingham Forest for Lewis O’Brien.

Ex-Blues striker Kieffer Moore recently moved to the Racecourse Ground from Sheffield United for £4 million.

Photo: Matchday Images

davidsuperg added 18:31 - Aug 14 Good luck broady, am sure we'll give you a warm welcome at pr. Just don't expect any points lol
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MK1 added 18:34 - Aug 14 Would rather he was still with us, but potential £10M is a good return for the club. Think he was desperate for game time with his place for Wales maybe in question. I wish him well. One of my favorite modern players. Did very well for us and goes with his head held high. Good luck lad.
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Mark added 18:34 - Aug 14 I think it is a brilliant deal all round. Broadhead goes home to Wales. Fantastic money for Ipswich, allowing us to reinvest. Think how we would have felt if he left us next year on a free transfer! He was an excellent buy and this is a good sale. I will always remember Nathan fondly as part of our double-promotion, and wish him all the best.
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SpiritOfJohn added 18:38 - Aug 14 Good move all round. Silky player, who can be a game changer, but often hampered by injury and rarely lasted more than 60 minutes. I'm still wondering why we let Morsy go for nothing, we should have held on to him until January. He would have been invaluable for the next few months and we could have given him a proper send off.
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NthQldITFC added 18:40 - Aug 14 Good luck Broady, thanks for all the fantastic moments. You'll forever be part of one of the best, most loveable squads I've ever seen at Portman Road.
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Fat_Boy_Tim added 18:40 - Aug 14 Good luck Broady, hope you do great things, you did for us. So our front line looks like: Left : Clark/Philogene/Smodics 10: Chappers/Akpom/Smodics Right: Ogbene/Clark/(Burns) Top: Hirst/Azor/Akpom So That's 8 players (plus Burns to come back with Al Hamadi and Hutchinson to go out) in the front 4 positions and looking at it, I can get behind it. I'm not buying all the nonsense about Clark, he's going to come good. If we can put a four of that lot on the field every week and another four on the bench we will start to look like the the promotion side again.

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LegendofthePhoenix added 18:46 - Aug 14 Broady always gave us hope. Fantastic player, thanks for the memories.
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churchmans added 18:59 - Aug 14 Very good fee for a brilliant player! Broady was absolute class for us! Great player and wish him all the best
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FreddySteady added 19:40 - Aug 14 Anything else to add @davidsuperg? I do think Broadhead gave us something just a little different by there we go.
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bluewarrior added 19:45 - Aug 14 In flashes he could be awesome but then he could look lightweight and uninvolved. In certain respects I’m sad to see him go because I always expected something might happen when he came on but with a questionable injury record and the likelihood that he would be a big part player - not forgetting where he was with his contract - I think this is a stellar piece of business. That said, with an injury free run of games and regular starter I think he’ll do well. Wrexham have recruited really well IMHO and will be around the top six for sure.

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MVBlue added 19:51 - Aug 14 Top player. Will be player of the season for them probably.
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BurleysGloryDays added 19:57 - Aug 14 Gutting
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barrystedmunds added 20:22 - Aug 14 Is that the sickies excuses expended now?
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KnoxvilleBlue82 added 21:15 - Aug 14 Loved Broadhead, on his day could be brilliant. Too often though he was too lightweight and didn't produce enough. If he also wanted to go somewhere else and wasn't going to renew his contract, its a great bit of business by town. Now for reinforcements and permanent deals too!
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youngie7 added 22:24 - Aug 14 Gutted to see him leave , class player, massive 2 weeks for the club with Omari nearly out the door, we have a great deal of money and need 3-4 quality players added and please don’t leave until the last day
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