Jason Scotland could become a casualty of the Paul Jewell revolution at Ipswich Town.
The 32-year-old striker is attracting interest from League One club Sheffield Wednesday, with new owner Milan Mandaric backing manager Gary Megson with the funds to assemble a forward line capable of firing the fallen giants back to the Championship.
And while Blues boss Jewell is certainly under no pressure to sell any players this summer, he may well decide to cash in and reinvest the money into other areas of his squad.
The Liverpudlian currently has five strikers at this disposal; new signing Michael Chopra, teenage star Connor Wickham, Tamas Priskin, promising youngster Ronan Murray and Scotland.
He insists that he neither wants nor needs to sell Wickham, so that number could soon become six as there is currently a bid in for yet another player in that position.
Jewell mentioned each of his senior strikers by name in an interview on Monday, but his comments about ‘quality’ which followed raise questions as to the future of his fringe forwards.
“We’ve got some good strikers at the club,” said Jewell. “We’ve got Connor (Wickham), we’ve got Jason Scotland, we’ve got Tamas Priskin and now we’ve got Michael Chopra, but I still want another one.
“Competition for places is something we didn’t have at the back end of last season. I’m talking about quality competition – we had plenty of numbers – but I felt the quality at this level was a little bit lacking.”
Scotland scored 10 goals in 33 starts for Town last season in what was a lukewarm debut campaign following a £750,000 switch from Wigan. Of his 19 appearances under Jewell he played the full match just once.
The Trinidad and Tobago forward, who was reportedly close to returning to former club Swansea on loan earlier this year, still has a year left to run on his contract.
With six players having left Ipswich at the end of their contracts this summer – key men Gareth McAuley and David Norris among them – Jewell has been working flat out to try and rebuild ahead of his first full season in charge.
Goalscorer Chopra and centre-back Ivar Ingimarsson have both arrived from Cardiff and Reading respectively, with Jewell chasing up to five more signings.
“If I’ve got money to spend I want to spend it wisely,” said the Blues boss. “Money in football is tight at the moment – I know you wouldn’t think that looking at some of the big transfers going on at the moment – but let’s not forget Ipswich Town were in administration not that long ago. We want to be ambitious, but we’ve also got to be realistic.
“Don’t discount anyone in and don’t discount anyone out.”