![\"Ipswich](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1_GettyImages-2256132781.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Rams saw a bid for the striker rejected this week as they look to bolster their options in the club’s attack<\/p>\n
Ipswich Town’s Sammie Szmodics celebrates after scoring against Blackburn Rovers(Image: Photo by Shaun Brooks – CameraSport via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
John Eustace kept his cards close to his chest over Derby County’s<\/a> pursuit of Ipswich forward Sammie Szmodics after the club saw their first bid rejected for him.<\/p>\n Derby this week lodged an offer for the attacker who played his best football<\/a> under Eustace<\/a> during their time at Blackburn together.<\/p>\n Derby would need to push the boat out significantly<\/a> in order to seal any deal although Ipswich so far are refusing to lower their demands for the 30-year-old.<\/p>\n Town paid \u00a39m for the striker in the summer of 2024 with Wrexham the latest club to join the race for the former Championship golden boot winner.<\/p>\n Eustace rates Szmodics highly after the striker scored 33 goals in all competitions during his time at Ewood Park.<\/p>\n JOIN US ON FACEBOOK! Latest Derby County news, analysis and more via our Rams Facebook page<\/a><\/p>\n But the finances may just be out of Derby’s range particularly if Ipswich are seeking to collect a large chunk of what they paid for him.<\/p>\n Asked about Szmodics today, Eustace played a straight bat although did admit a player of his quality would help the team.<\/p>\n “He’s not our player, and I am not going to talk about anybody not with us at the moment,” he said.<\/p>\n “We want to bring players in who are going to improve us. It’s very important that whoever we bring in makes us better.<\/p>\n “Somebody of his quality would certainly help the group.”<\/p>\n Would you like Derby to sign Szmodics? Have your say HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n Every day, the DerbyshireLive football desk strive to deliver all manner of news, features and transfer-related stories as a part of our overall package of Derby County content.<\/p>\n Our dedicated reporter Leigh Curtis – who you can follow on X by clicking here<\/a> – follows the Rams home and away and offers you comprehensive coverage from matchdays, press conferences and everything that happens in between.<\/p>\n So much happens day to day and sometimes you can struggle to keep on top of the very latest updates as and when they occur – that’s why we have produced a daily newsletter which you can sign up to, for free, and which means you’ll have a round-up of the key stories land in your email inbox. Sign up to the Derby newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n You can also get all your favourite content from DerbyshireLive’s Rams team on WhatsApp. Click here<\/a> to sign up for breaking updates about the biggest stories in and around the club.<\/p>\n If you prefer reading our Rams stories on your phone, consider downloading the DerbyshireLive app, in which you can personalise the content you see by selecting Derby County as one of your designated topics. You can get it from Apple here<\/a> and for Android here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rams saw a bid for the striker rejected this week as they look to bolster their options…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[45743,218,144670,101,28305,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-397451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-derby-county","tag-football","tag-john-eustace","tag-sports","tag-transfer-deadline-day","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}