Rovers are expecting a positive conclusion to their quest to sign Peterborough United attacker Sammie Szmodics.

The club are looking to bring in the 26-year-old on a permanent deal and hope that it can be tied up within the next week.

Rovers first made a move for Szmodics earlier this month, but saw their bids rejected by the League One club.

Posh director Barry Fry made public Rovers’ bids for the attacker, but said earlier this week there had been no further contact between the clubs.

Rovers have kept their counsel over the pursuit of Szmodics but there is a growing expectation from within the club that the deal will get over the line.

While reports suggest a fee has been agreed worth up to £2.5m, it is understood there is still work to be done, with Posh owner Darragh MacAnthony intimating that Szmodics will be in the squad to face Cheltenham Town in their opening League One fixture.

Rovers are looking to make moves in the market having so far only added Callum Brittain to their squad.

Barnsley, like Peterborough, were relegated from the Championship last season, with Rovers taking advantage of that fact by moving for the right-sided player in an overall package worth over £1m.

It will take more than that to land Szmodics who hit seven goals for Posh last season, but they face a hole in their finances after relegation last term.

Szmodics scored seven times last season, including against Rovers in April, having hit 16 en route to promotion in 2020/21. He signed for the club in the summer of 2020 from Bristol City, after an initial loan spell, for a fee of around £1m.

Posh are known to be tough negotiators and are holding out for the biggest fee possible if they are to let Szmodics go, the attacker having scored twice in their final pre-season friendly against Hull City last week.

Rovers had dealings with Posh in the January window when they agreed a deal for Siriki Dembele. That came in the club’s search for potential replacements for Joe Rothwell amid links with Bournemouth.

In the end Rovers didn’t sell, with Dembele instead moving to the Cherries where will be a team-mate of Rothwell this season.

Director of football Gregg Broughton, who is looking to close the Szmodics deal, said upon his arrival that Rovers have a healthy budget to work with.

With Brittain through the door and the hope that Szmodics will follow, it will be the most spent by Rovers in a single window since the £5m of Sam Gallagher in 2019.

Rovers spent around £8m in 2018, after promotion from League One, bringing in Ben Brereton, Adam Armstrong and Rothwell.

The summers of 2021 and 2020 saw only six-figure moves for Tayo Edun and Thomas Kaminski respectively.

Harry Pickering signed for £650,000 in January 2021, while Rovers spent around £500,000 on Dilan Markanday this January.

Meanwhile, Rovers are expected to tie up a season-long loan deal for Liverpool midfielder Tyler Morton.

A season-long loan agreement between the clubs was reached earlier this month, though the move was held up due to unavailability issues with the Liverpool squad.

The midfielder played 15 minutes of the Reds’ pre-season friendly with Red Bull Salzburg earlier this week and could feature again for Jurgen Klopp’s side this weekend.

Liverpool face Manchester City in the Community Shield on Saturday evening, while those who don’t feature in that are expected to be involved against Strasbourg on Sunday.

That will conclude Jurgen Klopp’s preparations for the new season which gets under way on August 6.

Morton is expected to be involved this weekend but is then set to be freed up to join Rovers, with the likelihood of an announcement next week.

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