Ipswich Now At ‘Small Gap’ For Leeds United Target As They Close In
Ipswich Town are closing in on Leeds United target Sammie Szmodics and the gap between the amount Town are offering and Blackburn Rovers want is now small, according to Sky Sports News.
Szmodics was lethal in front of goal for Blackburn in the Championship last season and the Ewood Park side are prepared to cash in on him for the right price.
Ipswich are the team leading the hunt to sign Szmodics, despite Leeds having been in with an enquiry.
Talks are ongoing between Ipswich and Blackburn and significant progress has been made.
There is now just a ‘small gap’ in the valuations of the respective sides and talks are progressing well.
Should an agreement be reached, it is claimed that personal terms are not expected to be an issue.
Szmodics is keen to play in the Premier League and moving to Portman Road will give him that opportunity.
Losing Szmodics would be a blow to Blackburn and the jury is out on how the Ewood outfit intend to replace the 27 league goals he scored last season
read more: McKenna: We Need to Make a Lot More Additions
Town boss Kieran McKenna says the Blues need to make “a lot more additions” in order to have a squad capable of competing in the Premier League but says nothing is imminent, although target Sammie Szmodics was absent from the Blackburn squad for their friendly this afternoon.
“I don’t think there’s anything, as far as I know of, very imminent in terms of the next day or so,” McKenna said when quizzed on current developments.
“We’re working really hard, we know we need to make a lot more additions to have a squad that’s strong enough to be competitive in Premier League games.
“We’re all working really, really hard on that and we’ve still got a few weeks before the season starts and a few more weeks before the window closes on top of that and I think we all know how imperative it is that we improve the squad further.”
Town have been continuing discussions with Blackburn regarding forward Szmodics for more than a fortnight now with the two parties understood to have been inching towards a deal.
A fee of £8 million – up from the initial offer of £6 million – plus top-ups taking it to £10 million is understood to be on the table and seems likely to be enough to finally get the move over the line.
While not commenting on any specific moves, McKenna was asked about the balance between maintaining the ‘band of brothers’ team spirit which has seen the Blues to back-to-back promotions, while making Premier League quality additions.
“It’s certainly a balance to get,” he reflected. “We’ve got a group and so many of them played from our season in League One to the season in the Championship.
“We know that we’ve built such a good spirit and style of play, culture in the group, the environment at the training ground, all those things, and that the challenge is to grow that with the players who have been very important to us but with everybody knowing that we need to add considerably to that group to deal with the demands of the division.
“I think everyone inside the club is comfortable with that, the players who have been such a big part of it are the first ones to acknowledge that and know that we need to improve the group, and they also want the help because they know the scale of the challenge that they’re going into.
“I think that’s always the challenge but I’m really confident with the group of players, the group of staff that we have that we’ll be able to do that.”
While the Blues have signed five players – Omari Hutchinson, Aro Muric, Liam Delap, Jacob Greaves and Ben Johnson – it’s perhaps been a surprise that Town haven’t so far added anyone with significant Premier League experience, although McKenna says players of that profile have been looked at.
