STOKE City have made an official bid to sign Jon Walters.

Derek Davis

STOKE City have made an official bid to sign Jon Walters.

After months of waiting in the wings the Potters last night made their move with a £3m offer for the Blues forward.

Ipswich Town will consider the offer over the weekend and decide on Monday whether to accept and allow Walters to talk to the Premier League club.

Walters is understood to be keen to at least talk with Tony Pulis and the Stoke people, and has made it clear to Ipswich Town he wants to be playing in the top flight and move closer to his family home in the north-west.

Speaking before Stoke had shown their hand Blues boss Jim Magilton admitted all his players were for sale at the right price but he would only stand in their way of moving up a league if the deal was not right for the club in the first place.

Magilton said “If we don't agree terms with a club then my players are not speaking to anyone. At the end of the day it has to be right for us.

“No matter how insistent a player is if it's not agreed between the two clubs then it can't happen.

“We are not inviting offers but we would obviously listen if we did get one for any of our players.”

Stoke have been tracking Walters for some time and the EADT understands they agreed to back off while he was with his expectant wife.

Given the interest shown last month and the impending birth of their second child, Walters was allowed two week's leave to get his head right.

On his return Magilton called on Stoke to declare their interest or back off but the Potters waited until now before showing their hand, hoping for a quick deal after already laying the groundwork.

Ironically, Walters had started to make plans to move his family back down to Ipswich and yesterday posed for pictures to be used on the club website.

Walters' former club Chester City have been an interested party as they stand to make around £600,000 with the 20 per cent sell-on clause added into the deal when they sold their striker to Town last year for less than £150,000.

Town are also bracing themselves for bids from Premier League sides for Owen Garvan and Pablo Counago, both of whom they tied up to three year contracts recently.

Meanwhile, Chris Casement has joined SPL side Hamilton Academical on loan until January.