Norwich City may still be in with a hope of landing Shola Ameobi - despite stories that Newcastle United have already accepted a bid from Ipswich Town.

Norwich City may still be in with a hope of landing Shola Ameobi - despite stories that Newcastle United have already accepted a bid from Ipswich Town.

The ray of hope came from the 26-year-old striker's agent, who firmly denied that a £4m deal has been agreed for his client - or indeed that Ipswich have even tabled a bid.

While Ipswich and Newcastle were refusing to comment on the strong rumours, agent Steven Denos declared: “As far as I'm concerned Ipswich have not put a bid in for Shola.

“There has certainly been no dialogue from Newcastle to me to the effect that a bid has been submitted from any club at this stage.”

The growing strength of yesterday's rumours, with people close to both clubs convinced a deal had been made, could, however, be enough to force City's hand. Canaries boss Glenn Roeder is a long-time admirer of Ameobi and has been expected to try to tempt the former England U21 international to Norfolk. But it looks like Tractor Boys' boss Jim Magilton is close to stealing one of his wanted men.

The Town chief is believed to have offered the Magpies £2.5m up front with the fee due to rise to almost £4m, which was accepted by the Magpies for a man who will be out of contract next season. But sources in the north east say 26-year-old Amoebi could turn down Ipswich as he would prefer to move to Carrow Road to team up with former Toon boss Roeder and his number two Lee Clark instead.

“He would probably like to link up with Roeder again, but the fact is that Ipswich have put their money where their mouth is, so to speak,” the source said.

Now, it remains to be seen if the Canaries can stump up the cash to match the Town offer or maybe persuade Toon boss Kevin Keegan to allow the frontman to come to Norfolk on a season-long loan. Either way, Amoebi looks certain to leave St James' Park this summer after his impending marriage, having played 210 games and scored 46 goals for the Magpies - 12 of them coming when Roeder was his manager in the north east for 15 months.