Ipswich Town assistant manager Stuart Taylor says a supposed bid from Bournemouth for Kayden Jackson is ‘news to me’.Speaking after a strong Blues side lost 2-1 to Arsenal’s Under-21s in the EFL Trophy at Portman Road last night,

Taylor was asked about the Cherries reportedly having a seven-figure offer for the striker rejected.

“Say that again?” he said. “Oh right, okay, I have absolutely no idea about that. I’ve not heard that before. It’s not something I’m aware of. That’s news to me.

“Kayden had a tight groin going into the Cambridge game, he had a little tweak, I think it was a grade one, and he’s still coming back from that. He was running yesterday and I’m pretty sure he’ll be doing some more running tomorrow.”

Asked if Jackson was very much in the club’s plans going forwards, Taylor replied: “100%, yeah, definitely. Honestly, I’ve not heard that. Whether it’s true or not true, I haven’t heard anything about that.”

Meanwhile, Taylor was quizzed about Flynn Downes - the midfielder again not involved following on from his transfer request last week after the Blues had rejected a second offer for him from Crystal Palace.

“Flynn came back in training with the lads yesterday. We’ll just see how the week progresses,” he said, the Blues now preparing for their League One opener against Wigan at Portman Road on Sunday.

“How he’s feeling is something Flynn will be able to answer for you. I had a good conversation with him yesterday and he’s certainly in a better place than he was before the weekend. I think the manager giving him a couple of days to go away and clear his head has helped. Yesterday he was in a better frame of mind.”

On defeat to an Arsenal team whose average age was little more than 18, Taylor said: “We were really pleased with the performance, just not the result. There was a lot of good play about us. We asked the lads to take the bulk of possession, dominate the game, turn it into creative play, get crosses into the box and get shots on goal. We ended up with 17 shots on goal, which is a high stat.

“Credit to their goalkeeper who played very, very well, and their defenders who threw their bodies in the way and made a lot of good blocks.

“There were opportunities. Towards the end you were thinking ‘it’s got to go over the line this time’. There was a lot of good stuff though and we’re happy with it.

“The biggest disappointment was that we didn’t win the game. We set out our stall to win the game and build on Saturday’s win. We’ve got a mentality at the football club that we want to win every game. The manager kept with near enough the same team and asked them to go again and so there was a positive there that a lot of the lads got another 90 minutes.”

Meanwhile, Taylor explained why Toto Nsiala was withdrawn from the starting XI not long before kick-off.

“He went out, did the warm-up and felt his hamstring,” said Taylor.

“We said there’s no point risking it. He’s had a great pre-season, a great start to the season and we didn’t want what happened last year where he got injured and was out for near enough a couple of months.

“Corrie Ndaba has been doing great so we gave him an opportunity to go and make his full debut.”

Ndaba himself went off in the second half after a hefty collision with keeper Tom Smith.

“Worryingly we thought it was a clash of heads, but thankfully it wasn’t,” said Taylor. “It turns out it’s a really bad dead leg. He couldn’t move at the time, he had no feeling in it, so he had to come off and leave us with 10 men.

“We’ll nurse him and see how he is in the morning.

“He did very well. He’s come back this pre-season with a real maturity, a lot of purpose about his play and his work. He’s one the manager identified as soon as we came in here. Sometimes lads take a little bit of time to develop. Last season he was close to getting in. He’s had a taste of it now and I’m sure he’ll want a lot more of it.”