Town and Shrewsbury are reported to be close to agreeing a deal which would see Shrews pair Toto Nsiala and Jon Nolan move to Portman Road.

The Blues made a joint-bid understood to be £1.4 million on Tuesday which was rejected by the League One club, who were managed by Town boss Paul Hurst until he moved to Portman Road at the end of May.

The pair handed in transfer requests on Wednesday and yesterday were barred from training with their team-mates while their situations were sorted.

According to the Shropshire Star, talks between the clubs have progressed and a deal is now close to being agreed.

A Blues move for Nsiala and Nolan had been anticipated since Hurst took over at Portman Road with both key players in his Shrewsbury side which reached the League One play-offs last season.

The pair, who are both 26, were initially recruited by Hurst during his time as Grimsby manager from elsewhere in non-league, having previously been with the Everton academy. Nolan is contracted to the Shrews until the summer of 2020 and Nsiala until 2019.

Following his spell at Everton, Huyton-born Nolan spent time with Stockport County, Lincoln City and Wrexham (loan) before joining Hurst's Grimsby in January 2016 before moving on to Chesterfield that summer. A year later Hurst took him to Shrewsbury.

Nsiala, a DR Congo international born in Kinshasa, spent time on loan at Macclesfield and Accrington while with Everton before a spell with TDCS Dong Thap in Vietnam.

After returning to the UK, Nsiala, who was brought up in Liverpool from the age of 10 after a period living in Paris, joined Southport before playing for Hurst at Grimsby between 2014 and 2016. After half a season at Hartlepool he was reunited with his old boss at Shrewsbury in January 2017.

Photo: Action Images

PortmanTerrorist added 10:22 - Aug 3 Tilt, Bogle, 2 Of Teddy/Emyr/Adeyemi fit, Dozzell coming back on fire (based on West Ham game) and we now have an interesting set of options. Think PH will still want another wide player unless he can reignite Ward. Same upfront unless he can unscramble the mess MM made of Sears brain. Reasons to be optimistic though still prepared for reality check tomorrow as Blackburn will be bouncing.

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Monkey_Blue added 10:23 - Aug 3 I have to echo a concern already expressed further up. It's good signing these supposed young and hungry players.... but the fact is they've not played at this level and until they do we have no idea if they are good enough. They may well be “average” championship players or may light the league up... but we could be exposed badly if these guys, as much as they want it, simply aren't up to this level. I'll have some faith in PH when it comes to these guys but there is no guarantee we won't be fighting relegation with kids and lower league journeymen. Im shocked at the fee we are supposedly looking to pay for Jackson as he has had a shot at championship level and didn't perform. Would be interesting to see if any of these players were on the radar prior to PHs appointment via our scouting network. I know when Keane came in he made the scouting network practically redundant as he only wanted players he already knew regardless of anyone the scouts had identified.I'm hoping we are all rewarded with a good season and this high pressing game bridges some of the gap in quality and finances.. #COYB

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Monkey_Blue added 10:23 - Aug 3 I have to echo a concern already expressed further up. It's good signing these supposed young and hungry players.... but the fact is they've not played at this level and until they do we have no idea if they are good enough. They may well be “average” championship players or may light the league up... but we could be exposed badly if these guys, as much as they want it, simply aren't up to this level. I'll have some faith in PH when it comes to these guys but there is no guarantee we won't be fighting relegation with kids and lower league journeymen. Im shocked at the fee we are supposedly looking to pay for Jackson as he has had a shot at championship level and didn't perform. Would be interesting to see if any of these players were on the radar prior to PHs appointment via our scouting network. I know when Keane came in he made the scouting network practically redundant as he only wanted players he already knew regardless of anyone the scouts had identified.I'm hoping we are all rewarded with a good season and this high pressing game bridges some of the gap in quality and finances.. #COYB

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Monkey_Blue added 10:26 - Aug 3 PortmanTerrorist- I don't think Ward needs reigniting. He was never annout and out winger when we signed him and personally think he is a player of quality at this level. The thinness of the squad last season due to the injuries meant he was needed in several roles...
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TractorBoyTommy added 10:53 - Aug 3 @Monkey_Blue I totally agree with you. Just be careful as if you dont agree with everyone elses opinion on here you will receive a torrent of abuse. I would expect this type of behaviour from fans of the scum up the road and not our own, its a shame really that the majority of towns fans on here cannot have a constructive debate and have to resort to name calling and abuse.

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BerlinBlue added 12:56 - Aug 3 Very pleased with this. There's no reason why recruiting from the lower leagues can't be successful. I like that we recognise that and are prepared to take the risk, to give these guys a chance to shine. It's far too easy and lazy for various detractors to say we'll be relegation material as a result. Football is rarely that predictable.
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ldnj added 13:00 - Aug 3 Wholeheartedly agree with Monkey_Blue, lets hope he can identify players that will be up to it. As someone else has pointed out, IF Waghorn and Garner leave with McGoldrick & Celina already gone that's the majority of last season's goals scored (and many assists). Hopefully he's identified some good players to come in but there now look to be quite a few changes which just may mean a little time to bed down and last season benefited from a good start. Here's hoping ...

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Len_Brennan added 14:22 - Aug 3 Excellent work above Tommy. I'm starting to warm to you.
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dunkleberrydog added 08:27 - Aug 4 MonkeyBlue, Some useful points made and had I not seen the performance against the Irons I would have agreed. We dominated their expensive assemble meant of players for long periods. That said, it was a friendly, so today's match will be very revealing, especially since Mowbray is familiar with the Hurst style of play..... 🤔
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