Town boss Roy Keane is reported to have made Cardiff City a £3 million offer for striker Michael Chopra, in the wake of the Bluebirds’ failure to win the play-offs. Keane, who is also understood to have told Owen Garvan, Colin Healy, Alan Quinn and Alex Bruce that they are no longer in his plans, is a big fan of the former England U21 international, who he signed when manager of Sunderland.

Cardiff’s financial situation is no longer quite as parlous as it was a few months ago when Town looked to sign left-back Mark Kennedy, the club are in the process of being taken over by a Malaysian consortium, and the Bluebirds are likely to want to keep hold of this season’s 21-goal top scorer.

Keane took Chopra from Cardiff to Sunderland for £5 million in the summer of 2007, the former Newcastle man netting eight times in 24 starts and 18 sub appearances during his time at the Stadium of Light.

The 26-year-old’s record in his spells with Cardiff is more prolific, the frontman scoring 22 goals in 44 games in his first and 30 in 67 starts and 11 appearances from the bench since returning, initially on loan during 2008/09.

Earlier on in the season, Keane said he would have been interested in signing Chopra last summer but was aware that his £3 million permanent move back to Wales was already all but done by the time he took over at Portman Road.

While Keane would clearly be delighted to have Chopra in his squad, the Blues boss recently questioned whether Town would be able to afford to pay the wages and fee for a striker of Chopra’s standing.

It’s little surprise that Keane sees Garvan, Quinn, Healy and Bruce as surplus to requirements with none of the four regulars in his side this season. All four are contracted until 2011.

Garvan came back into Keane’s side for the final day of the season match against Sheffield United, having been in and out of the team throughout the season, while Quinn was rarely involved during the second half of the campaign and Bruce and Healy sent out on loan to Leicester and Falkirk respectively.

Leicester are understood to be interested in signing Bruce permanently, although the clubs are yet to agree a fee for the Irish international defender.

Meanwhile, former Blue Darren Ambrose is reported to be in talks with QPR regarding personal terms after Crystal Palace’s administrators agreed a £750,000 fee with the club now managed by former Eagles’ boss Neil Warnock.

Photo: Action Images

SurreyITFC added 19:59 - May 24 Let's get Chopra on board ASAP. Chopra, Priskin, Stead & Wickham nice forward Line to use throuout the season. Get Derry on board as a solid holding midfielder so as we can then release Leadbitter into a more forward thinking role. Martin & Civelli & Edwards to create plenty of chances for 2 out of 4 names listed above. COYB & There's only one KEANO!!!!!!!!
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SurreyITFC added 20:12 - May 24 Apologies Ladies & Gents, I meant to write "throughout the season"
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jas0999 added 20:36 - May 24 All rumours of course, but none of this is a surprise. Personally I think Chopra would be an excellent signing. Thought he played well on saturday. Not surprised by the possible departures, although I am a fan of Garvans. However, even Magilton struggled with this guy, which begs the question what his attitude is like. Re Ambrose - some people have short memories. Players returning to old clubs doesn't always work out, as Ambrose proved a season or two ago. No thanks. Not for us.

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bedsitfc added 20:48 - May 24 i would like to see the likes of chopra here but not at the cost of team spirit, if he comes and fits in with our wage structure then bril.
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BenITFCMAD added 20:57 - May 24 Yes!!!! I think we are gonna get him plus havent Cardiff always wanted Garvan so maybe we could offer him as part of the deal?? COYB
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MarkITFC added 21:02 - May 24 deffo try and sign him , just the player we need , I just for some reason think theres no chance of us getting him .. to good to be ture i reckon but really hope we can get him
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keebs_itfc added 21:07 - May 24 if we dont even attempt to get ambrose back then there is sumfin seriously wrong with roy keane! he was insana last season and 750k is an absolute bargain!!! get chopra in too on that note!
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WadzillaBhoy added 21:09 - May 24 Sign him up for £3M, we can afford that, surely.
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aldermastonblue added 21:15 - May 24 Whay about GIO get him back keane
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ozzy_333 added 21:42 - May 24 whether its realistic or not . chopra 3/4 million , a proven championship goalscorer , 750,000 for ambrose a town great and again 16/17 goals last season , gio ? highly unlikely but who is im sure in everyones dream ipswich team , creativity , finishing , and a proven playmaker for this club , 4 goals in 8 apperences . if that spread across the whole season thats a 20+ goalscorer . however i still dont understand why we cannot sign rosinier because i felt he was a very good right back , and started to get a good partnership going with edwards . then you have to look at lower league clubs or even foregin leagues . charlie austin 1 million? , if roy keane cn get at least 2 of these players ill be happy that our side can score goals , most shots on target , how about we put some in abck off the net next season . COYB !

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warwickblue added 22:30 - May 24 Just watched Mexico - Sign Gio!
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woodpecker added 23:15 - May 24 Right now Chopra is probably one of the best strikers at championship level... Standard! It would be silly of us not attempting to sign him. A partnership of either him and wickham or him and priskin would do some serious damage next season.
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mightytown added 23:38 - May 24 goerge boyd, micheal chopra both these signings would be fantastic for us. ambrose agreed, at that price would also be a good addition. I feel Robert Koren would be the signing of the season for any championship club, if he is not snapped up by a premiership club and we should make a serious attempt to sign him. We need to be ambitious in our pursuit of players, its important to not pay over the odds to get what you want but it will do us no favours to sit back and miss out on the players we need and can realistically afford. it would be great to turn these links into impressive signings to get the buzz around the team going again for the start of the season. i hope keane can get his assistant manager sorted too, if we can add this sort of quality to the squad then i will be confident that we are moving in the right direction and will be strong and competitive next season! here's hoping for a good world cup and an even better season for town next year! coyb!

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mightytown added 23:40 - May 24 oh, and gio will most definitely NOT be coming back to town
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naa added 00:14 - May 25 Blueknight: why the need to publish stats? For a start we all know that one, it's been trumped around all season. I suspect the one person who made the lack of creativity comment, which I guess you were replying to, actually watched some games last year. I certainly did and we definitely lacked creativity (not saying you didn't watch games last year, just making the point that it was obvious that there was very little creativity in the midfield. The number of shots does not prove this statement false I'm afraid. Stoke have almost zero creativity, but they still create chances. The two are not one in the same). The shots of goal stat can be very mis-leading. Sure we missed some sitters most games, but so do all teams. A lot of our efforts were from distance, or no-hopers - when there was a lack of a decent option. Chopra should definitely improve things, if we can get him, though I'm unconvinced he's worth £3m, or his likely very high wages. But anyone here who doesn't think we need more creativity in midfield clearly isn't a fan of what I call 'proper' football, which is the type of football Ipswich play, or at least used to. Some of you on here are such whores for success over entertainment it's sad. To that end it's sad to see Garvan go. Sure he was a bit of an enigma, but what worries me is that RK has been linked with Derry and hasn't made a single mention of needing to get width, pace or creativity into our midfield. That worries me greatly.

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ChambersM added 00:33 - May 25 Make a bid for chopra fair enough bit I cnt see of happening seeing as we are now a midtable if not lowe champ team now( thanks to keane) and bigger teams will surely come in fog him. Keep Bruce and garvan and stead, never done any thing wrong for the club, Snd garvan is that creativity were looking for. Not convinced it would work out with ambrose but 750k does sound good so maybe worth a bid. You wud think we wouldneed to sell to make more funds available and I can't see anyone I would really want to sell in all honesty. Should have kept rosenior and wright as both decent champ full backs and rosenior had pace down the right.we've got two decent left backs in oconnor and peters so set there and dissapointingly we are going to needto buy a right back. Really not confident about who keane will buy or how will do next season, get him out soon as!!!!!

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ChambersM added 00:33 - May 25 Make a bid for chopra fair enough bit I cnt see of happening seeing as we are now a midtable if not lowe champ team now( thanks to keane) and bigger teams will surely come in fog him. Keep Bruce and garvan and stead, never done any thing wrong for the club, Snd garvan is that creativity were looking for. Not convinced it would work out with ambrose but 750k does sound good so maybe worth a bid. You wud think we wouldneed to sell to make more funds available and I can't see anyone I would really want to sell in all honesty. Should have kept rosenior and wright as both decent champ full backs and rosenior had pace down the right.we've got two decent left backs in oconnor and peters so set there and dissapointingly we are going to needto buy a right back. Really not confident about who keane will buy or how will do next season, get him out soon as!!!!!

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WickedBlue added 02:27 - May 25 Funny how when he came back on trail and the people on here couldn't wait to get shot of Ambrose (the second time). He went to Crystal Palace to play under Warnock who gave him his chance and got the best out of him. Now Warnock is in charge of QPR and has money and can match anything we could offer and he wants Ambrose playing for him there. Why on earth do you morons think Ambrose would want to come back here instead of playing for the manager that believed in him when no one else would? Get real people we have no chance of stealing Ambrose away from Warnock....sheesh. Think if we get Chopra we will be very very lucky as Cardiff don't now need the money and want to keep most of their squad.

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itfc1981 added 06:21 - May 25 gat ambrose, plus Hooper. chopps is a big time charlie 4 goals in 4 months.
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bennyblue added 06:28 - May 25 could we sell keane ? then get jim in buy this chopra bloke half the ticket price we could then loan at chopra cause we allready know hes no good or maybe just give the same money to charity and keep stead cause hes scored more than chopra this year hasnt he ? play our winter home games in some warmer country and start trying to win instead of draw then sell jim to real madrid and get that dutch bloke in and selll everyone then buy them back at twice the price orswap them for meatpies and coke then loanthem to sunderland whereever thar is

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nthstd added 06:54 - May 25 OK he bailed Cork City out by buying Healey and playing a game there. Owen Garvan was never good enough for RK yet he was good enough to CAPTAIN the ROI under 21 team. Alan Quin n was never going to set the world on fire, but he was always a credible left sided threat when we had NOTHING. We all know enough about Alex Bruce. RK has lost the plot!
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16_Jack_ken_16 added 07:00 - May 25 Just get him and ambrose and as you like the old players keane get alan lee back okay sorted
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These_arent_the_days added 07:16 - May 25 Whether Chopra is a good buy or not the surprising thing is that despite the millions Keane has wasted ME still trusts him with the cheque book.
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Manic_Blue added 07:38 - May 25 I really can't get over the negativity on here. Herer we are linked with a player lots of you have said we should go for, the type of natural goalscorer we've needed for ages and STILL there are people moaning about it. Here's a radical idea. How about you quit whinging, stop prejudging players before we've signed them and actually get behind the team for a while. If, after 10 games or so of the new season, it's not working out, then re-assess it. But until then, stop moaning. If you can't, then bugger off to Man United or Chelsea, where your unrealistic expectations might be met occasionally.

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hogster1970 added 08:32 - May 25 well still believe it isnt the forwards we are having problems with its the creativity from midfield we lacked decent width and pace all year and not many killer passes for the forwards from the center of midfield, i still believe getting rid of garvan is a mistake, and should be tried in either center roles along side either norris or leadbitter, i still think playing both of these 2 together doesnt work , bit like gerrad and lampard, yes garvan is slow but in his role like hollands you dont need it but you do need a good eye of were to pass and disrtibute the ball to, we only done this for a few games this year. but i think chopra would be a good singing though but must bring in priskin and give him another good go, fed with some decent balls good do well, how ever i felt he kept timing his runs to early and kept getting off side to often or he was just to quick for the lines man (hmmm). whickams has a make or brake year for him but i fell he should do well and needs to be starting every game , as the reserves is just a total waste of time for player development and sending out on loan isnt the arwnswer neither as the lad isnt training with us

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