Town are amongst a number of Division One clubs keeping an eye on giant Hungarian striker Peter Kovacs. The 6'6" frontman's agent, Gary Stevens, says that the Blues, Nottingham Forest and Sunderland have all shown interest in Kovacs, who plays for Tromsø in Norway.

Agent Stevens says that 25-year-old has been tracked since the autumn: "Both Ipswich and Forest saw Peter play for Tromsø in October and knew of him before they spoke to me.

"Ipswich wanted to strengthen their attack in the spring to help secure promotion. Forest need the big and strong type of player that Peter represents, which is so important in the English First Division."

However, Kovacs will be unable to join an English club until the summer due to work permit issues.

Although he is included in the Hungarian squad for matches in February, he will not have played enough games to qualify for a permit.

But when Hungary becomes a full member of the EU in May, Hungarians will not need permits to work in the UK or other EU countries.

Stevens is keen that scouts from Town, Forest and Sunderland watch his man in action for his country in the three February games which are being played in Cyprus.

Kovacs had a short trial with Sunderland in November and manager Mick McCarthy was keen to see him in action again: "Kovacs trained with us for two days and he is a huge fellow.

"He did OK but their season has finished now and we really could have done with seeing him in match action. It won't be a case of signing him, at least until we have seen him in action."

The Hungarian still has time to run on his Tromsø contract but the arctic circle club are currently in financial trouble and are keen to offload players. The striker could leave for far less than the £500,000 he is rated at in Norway.

Kovacs scored eight goals in 26 games for Tromsø last season. He has previously played with Salgotarjani Bányász, Ujpest Budapest and Erdi VSE in his home country, and FC Lahti and FC Haka in Finland.

Photo: Action Images

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