Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy says the club has ‘really good bids’ in for a number of players.

The January transfer window shuts at 11pm next Tuesday and, while Toumani Diagouraga, Jordan Spence, Kieffer Moore and Steven Taylor have been signed, a high-profile striker replacement for the previously sold Daryl Murphy striker has proved difficult to land.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s Championship game at Preston, McCarthy said: “We’ve had some, what I think are, really good bids in for quite a number of players – but they keep getting knocked back. They are bids in the millions and still nothing is happening.

“We turned down really good bids for David McGoldrick and for (Daryl) Murphy not so long ago. All our fans were saying ‘well done’ for turning six, seven million quid down. Now the boot’s on the other foot I’m afraid.

“If they don’t want to sell, there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s proving every bit as difficult as I said it would be when the window opened.”

With various Championship clubs buying and selling players for more than £10m this season, does McCarthy know what market value is at this given time?

“I haven’t got a clue,” he admitted. “Jonathan Kodjia, (Ross) McCormack, (Alex) Pritchard, (Scott) Hogan – those level of transfers has rendered me clueless as to what players are worth. It’s what people want to spend on them. I really don’t know.

“The power is with the seller now when it used to be with the buyer. You always knew if you went in with three, four, five million you’d get a player. Now it’s tens, twenties, thirties and that’s not even discussing the wages.”

Meanwhile, Blues defender Christophe Berra has once again been linked with a move back to his former club Hearts – fresh reports suggesting he may be swapped for highly-rated Scottish international right-back Callum Paterson.

“In this window, nothing will be happening with Christophe at all,” said McCarthy. “He has a daughter up in Scotland and whatever the summer brings is a different story altogether, but he’s absolutely going nowhere right now.”