Town are set to renew their interest in Doncaster midfielder James Coppinger this summer, according to a tabloid report this morning. The 31-year-old was part of a failed joint bid also involving striker Billy Sharp — now at Southampton — during the last close season when the former Exeter man was valued at £300,000.

Blues boss Paul Jewell is now claimed to be ready to pay £500,000 for the Guisborough-born schemer, who signed a new contract until 2014 with now-relegated Rovers last July.

Coppinger spoke about his future after Saturday’s relegation-confirming 4-3 home defeat to Portsmouth: “I am contracted to the club for two more years and I have got a testimonial in my contract and, yes, [the loss to Pompey has] been hard to take because we’ve had success throughout my time here and to finish like that was so frustrating.

“Everyone is despondent and can’t believe what’s happened but it’s not just about the result against Portsmouth, it’s about the whole season and we haven’t been good enough.

“How do we react? I don’t know how the club will react to it. It is in a difficult situation because they didn’t envisage going down. The chairman and manager will get together and thrash out a plan and, hopefully, it will be a good one for the club.”

However, the one-time Darlington and Newcastle trainee may not have endeared himself to either chairman John Ryan or manager Dean Saunders by criticising their now abandoned policy of employing agent Willie McKay to bring in high profile players such as El-Hadji Diouf and Pascal Chimbonda on short-term deals to put them in the shop window.

"I think it's disrespectful to the league if you think you can just bring in big names and that will win you games," he said. "In this league, and in leagues below, you need more than just names on the team sheet.

"You need passion, commitment and togetherness and it just shows sometimes if you haven't got that, you don't do anything in football. I've been here eight years and this [season] is the hardest and most frustrating.

"The players that have been here a long time and had so much success in the Championship and kept us in the league for three years have found it difficult because it is a totally different regime and it hasn't worked out."

Photo: Action Images

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Photo: Action Images

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