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Chuba Akpom has been linked with three separate Championship clubs in the current transfer window, including Ipswich Town and Birmingham City.
Birmingham City want to sign Chuba Akpom on loan, with a view to making the deal a permanent one if promotion to the Premier League is won by Chris Davies’ new-look Blues side.
Middlesbrough then joined the Akpom race, with Rob Edwards keen to bring the versatile striker back to the club after a 29-goal season with Boro and Michael Carrick back in 2022/23.
It then transpired that Kieran McKenna and Ipswich Town wanted to bring the 29-year-old in, after reports emerged linking Ipswich to Akpom as a potential replacement to fill the Liam Delap-shaped hole in attack.
- READ MORE: Ipswich Town fans will surely be concerned as Kieran McKenna explains Omari Hutchinson absence
Ipswich Town win the race for Chuba Akpom over Birmingham City
Both Ipswich and Birmingham face off in the Championship’s curtain raiser on Friday evening, which will pit two of the promotion favourites against one another.
It means Akpom’s debut could be for one and against the other if the deal is sealed in time. Akpom had a huge decision to make with the Tractor Boys and Blues both agreeing to the same deal with Ajax.
Birmingham’s forward line includes Jay Stansfield, Lyndon Dykes, and new-boy Kyogo Furuhashi as well. Ipswich, meanwhile, have the likes of Sammie Szmodics and Conor Chaplin who can occupy a role in a front two.
However, George Hirst and Ali Al-Hamadi perhaps lack some experience of the second tier, or the required goals to fire them to an automatic promotion place.
That may have been a factor in Akpom choosing Ipswich in the end, which is what Dharmesh Sheth of Sky Sports has claimed. He states that Akpom on his way to Suffolk for a medical with Ipswich.
He will become Ipswich’s fifth summer signing so far, but Ipswich aren’t done there and a sixth deal also appears to be imminent for the Tractor Boys.
- READ MORE: Five strikers Ipswich Town must look at signing this summer including ‘sharp’ Kieran McKenna target
Ipswich Town’s pursuit of Jens Cajuste accelerates
Ipswich have been in the mix for Jens Cajuste again this summer, with the midfielder a standout player as a loan during their relegation in 2024/25.
He could become signing number six, joining the likes of Cedric Kipre, Ashley Young, David Button, Akpom, and Azor Matusiwa. It’s likely he would partner the latter at the base of midfield.
That’s because journalist Sacha Tavolieri states Cajuste’s arrival from Italian giants SSC Napoli is a done deal. He claims that it is a paid loan of €1 million with a mandatory option of €6.5 million that will activate if they bounce straight back up to the Premier League.
That will trigger a three-year deal if activated and Cajuste is arriving in England this evening to complete the move, with medical tests tomorrow morning.