IPSWICH Town manager Roy Keane faces competition from Cardiff City in his attempt to bring left-back Damien Delaney to Portman Road.

Elvin King

By ELVIN KING

elvin.king@archant.co.uk

IPSWICH Town manager Roy Keane faces competition from Cardiff City in his attempt to bring left-back Damien Delaney to Portman Road.

The Blues are believed to have agreed a fee of around �700,000 with Queens Park Rangers over the 27-year-old who was born in Keane's home town of Cork.

Delaney appeared set to put pen to paper before the weekend, but it now looks as though it will be next week before Keane makes his first Town purchase.

And then they will have to overcome interest from a Cardiff club bolstered financially by agreeing a �5million move for central defender Roger Johnson to Birmingham City.

Keane's predecessor at Portman Road, Jim Magilton, was an admirer of Delaney and showed interest in bringing him to Suffolk last season.

It is understood that the deal to bring the defender to Ipswich was well on the way to being buttoned up before Magilton took over as Rangers manager earlier this summer.

Magilton would have liked to have kept Delaney, but after being placed on the transfer list last season the player's future has been set to be away from Loftus Road for some while now.

The former Town boss is on a coaching course this week, and it may now be Monday before any further moves concerning Delaney are made.

Ipswich will not comment, but it is known that Keane sees left back as a priority as he seeks four players to strengthen his squad for the start of the 2009/10 campaign.

Ben Thatcher will miss the start of pre-season training on Thursday as he recovers from a medial knee ligament injury, but he should be fit for the start of the season on August 8.

But there are no other regular left-backs in the Town squad although David Wright, Pim Balkestein and Tommy Smith can all play there.

Delaney started his career at Cork City and had spells with Leicester, where he would have been known to current Town coach Tony Loughlan, and Hull before joining QPR.

He won two Republic of Ireland caps last year with the player replying when asked about Ipswich interest: “It's one thing to be wanted, it's another for clubs to agree a transfer.”