|
Ricardo Fuller turnined down a loan move to Ipswich yesterday but today Royle has revealed that Town are very close to bringing Alan Lee to the club on a permanent deal.
He said: "The chairman is talking with the chairman of Cardiff about Alan Lee. They have had a dialogue and we're hopeful for next week but no more than that at the moment. It'll be a permanent deal with money changing hands.
"He caused us a lot of problems when he was at Rotherham. It's a lot like the position Shefki was in really, it's not quite worked for him at Cardiff, where his goalscoring record has gone a bit fallow, but he hasn't had a lot of starts recently.
"He's young enough, strong enough and good enough. He first caught my eye at Burnley coming on as a substitute when I was working in the North. He's not shy of work, he's 6ft 3in, and we've needed a physical presence in the opponents' box since Shefki left."
Lee is currently out of favour at Ninian Park, after the emergence of Camerone Jerome this season. He began his career at Aston Villa and after a couple of fleeting loan spells that took in Torquay and Port Vale, he moved onto Burnley for £200,000 in 1999.
A year later, after 1 goal from four first-team starts at Turf Moor, he moved onto Rotherham for £150,000 and made a big impact, scoring 35 goals in 101 league starts.
This form prompted a big money move to Cardiff in time for the start of the 2003-2004 season, for £850,000.
However, Alan's career in the Welsh capital failed to materialise as expected, with a floundering goal record of 12 from 55 starts. Joe Royle was impressed with him after he came off the bench in Town's opening game of 2005/2006 though.
The 27-year old Galway-born striker has amassed eight caps for the Republic of Ireland, still to score a goal though. His most recent outing for his country came in September 2004, against Cyprus.
He is a powerful forward with an eye for goal.
Royle has not ruled out another signing, in addition to Lee, should the deal go through. He also left open the possibility of adding another striker, with Robbie Fowler's name again being mentioned.
For now though, Royle is happy to use young Scott Barron at left-back, after he impressed in the draw at the Britannia Stadium and confirmed he will start against Portsmouth.