IPSWICH Town will have to up their bid for Billy Sharp and James Coppinger to �4 million if they want to land the pair.

That is the claim of one national newspaper this morning who report Doncaster Rovers would sell their top striker, Sharp, and player of the season Coppinger.

But Town would have to increase their initial bid by almost �1.5 million if they want to sign the duo.

Earlier this month, Ipswich bid �2.6 million for both players but Rovers immediately rejected the offer – while making it public.

Manager Sean O’Driscoll described the bid as “unrealistic”, but admitted he expected more interest in his best two players.

O’Driscoll said: “We don’t want to lose our best players. We know how important it is to have a goalscorer in this division - and we saw just how important Billy is to us when we were without him for the last 12 games and didn’t win once.

“Every player has their price but the bid was way short of Billy’s valuation. Copps (Coppinger) is a slightly different case because of his age.

“But the bid has got to be realistic and it wasn’t a realistic bid for someone of James’ quality.”