Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy has a message for the queue of Premier League big guns that are closely monitoring rising star Tyrone Mings – “good luck”.

Arsenal scout Pat Rice is a regular attendee at Blues games, Mings’ dad Adie is a scout at Chelsea, while former Town boss and Everton coach Joe Royle is understood to be a big admirer of the powerful 21-year-old left-back.

Town turned down a bid of around £2.5m for Mings from Crystal Palace on August transfer deadline day and potential offers up to four times that amount are now being speculated about in the national press following the ambitious youngster’s rapid progress.

“He’s on a four-year deal, (until 2017) or something like that isn’t he?” said McCarthy. “So good luck to them.”

Asked if he would have any trouble keeping Mings’ feet on the floor, the Blues boss responded: “He’s great, but if one of them came in and offered a bonkers amount of money it’s going to turn his head. It does to everybody.

“There we are, ‘Mick McCarthy said Ty will have his head turned’. You can put whatever you want on it. I’m not saying that.

“If somebody comes in with an unbelievable amount of money – if it’s Chelsea, Man United, any of them... Phew, my head would turned by that. And I’m a damn sight older and wiser.”

Blues managing director Ian Milne said earlier this week that owner Marcus Evans – who also turned down a £7.5m offer from Leicester for striker David McGoldrick back in the summer – has been warning off Premier League clubs regarding the availability of his key players.

With Town fourth in the table heading into tomorrow’s clash at fellow high-fliers Bournemouth, the feeling is this could be a golden opportunity for Town to push for promotion.

And even so, isn’t it too soon to be talking about Mings as a Premier League player given he’s only made 20 Championship starts?

“You’ve just brought it up,” said a slightly terse McCarthy. “I would never have mentioned it. So let’s stop talking about it. I didn’t come here to talk about Tyrone Mings, I came here to talk about the Bournemouth game.”

He added: “Listen, if he was playing s*** there’d be nobody (scouts) coming to our games. I’m sure they’re looking at David McGoldrick too. I’m sure they’re looking at Teddy Bishop. I’m sure they’re looking at Murph (Daryl Murphy). Isn’t that fantastic?

“There was nobody and his f****** sister coming to watch us two years ago so it’s great they are now. Happy days. Let’s hope they keep coming.”