Ipswich Town have had a bid for Blackburn Rovers forward Sammie Szmodics rejected, as per national reports.

It's believed that the Blues' opening offer is around £6m, with Rovers reportedly wanting £20m for a player who scored 27 Championship goals last season. Whether the two clubs can meet somewhere in the middle remains to be seen.

The EADT and Ipswich Star understands that Ipswich were cool when the 28-year-old was first put to them earlier this month, with boss Kieran McKenna keen to centre his recruitment around young players he can develop.

Since then, however, Town have been beaten to the signing of Jaden Philogene by Aston Villa, while Nathan Broadhead has sustained a pre-season injury that could rule him out for the start of the Premier League season.

Marcus Harness started as the inside left forward in Saturday's 1-0 pre-season win against Shakhtar Donetsk, with striker Freddie Ladapo getting some minutes in that role too.  

Born in Colchester, Szmodics made more than 150 appearances for the U's in League One and League Two before moving to Championship club Bristol City in 2019.

After failing to break into the Robins side, he was loaned to Peterborough United in January 2020 and scored twice at Portman Road - cupping his ears in front of the North Stand when celebrating one - when inflicting a 4-1 defeat on Ipswich.  

Szmodics ultimately signed for Posh permanently, helping them secure promotion to the Championship. 

After Peterborough suffered instant relegation, Szmodics returned to the Championship when signing for Blackburn Rovers in a deal worth around £2.5m. The versatile forward - who can play off the left or as a No.10 - scored 33 goals across all competitions last season as Rovers finished 19th in the Championship table. His previous season's best was 16 goals in League One.

Szmodics didn't feature in Blackburn's pre-season friendlies in Austria over the weekend.