Everton, Aston Villa, Bolton and Swansea are all in the hunt to sign Town’s loan midfielder Keith Andrews from Blackburn when the January transfer window opens, according to one of this morning's tabloids. Elsewhere, the Blues are again linked with Doncaster frontman Billy Sharp.
Blackburn are understood to be willing to allow Andrews to leave on a free transfer in order to get the remaining 18 months of his contract off their books with his spell at Town having caught the eye of plenty of Premier League scouts. Previously Wigan have also been linked.
After yesterday’s victory over Derby, in which the Irish international netted the ninth goal of his spell with the Blues, boss Paul Jewell revealed that Andrews’s agent is set to hold talks with Town owner Marcus Evans on Monday.
If the linked Premier League sides firm up their interest, particularly the likes of Everton and Aston Villa, then it seems highly unlikely that the 31-year-old will be with the Blues for the second half of the season.
Meanwhile, Southampton, Cardiff, Burnley and Town are all said to be targeting Doncaster’s Billy Sharp in January. The Blues previously had a £2.3 million offer for the 25-year-old rebuffed in the summer, while the striker turned down a move to Southampton after they had agreed a £3.25 million deal with Rovers.
Sharp reportedly has a clause in his contract, which stretches to the summer of 2013, which means Doncaster would now have to allow him to move on if they receive an offer of £1.75 million.
Elsewhere, Spurs boss Harry Redknapp says he ultimately decided not to buy Town’s Connor Wickham as the Blues’ valuation was greater than he was willing to pay for the striker: "We kept looking at him. We watched him dozens of times and we liked him but we felt it was a lot of money for him.
"We have young players here like Harry Kane. He is a bit younger, we like him and we didn't feel we wanted to pay that money for Wickham.”
The England U21 international instead joined Sunderland for £8.1 plus further clauses taking the deal to £12 million and a sell-on percentage.
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