Ipswich Town have accepted a Stg£750,000 bid for Matt Holland which will take the Republic of Ireland midfielder to newly promoted Portsmouth.
Town had agreed a fee of £4million with Aston Villa in August last year but havebeen "reluctantly" forced to accept the vastly reduced bid from Premiership new boys Portsmouth due to the state of the transfer market.
Ipswich chairman David Sheepshanks told the club's official websitewww.itfc.co.uk: "As I think has been well understood by our supporters overrecent weeks, most regrettably and reluctantly we have been obliged to considerthe transfer opportunities for our much admired and outstanding captain MattHolland.
"For any club outside the Premiership, it is not just about transfer fees butalso the size of wage commitments.
"Matt Holland was not on huge money by Premier League standards butnevertheless on a level that is simply unaffordable in the First Division.
"The state of the transfer market is such that while there is interest in aplayer of Matt's pedigree, the very best fee that we have been able to obtain is£750,000 from Portsmouth.
"This is particularly tough to digest when a year ago much higher values werebeing spoken of and indeed in August 2002 we agreed a sale to Aston Villa of£4million.
"It is now up to Matt to discuss personal terms with Portsmouth. Clearly ifhe decides to go he will be a huge loss but by the same token we have everyconfidence in Joe Royle being able to replace Matt in the team and build hisIpswich Town side for the future."
Holland is currently on international duty with the Republic of Irelandpreparing for the Euro 2004 qualifiers against Albania and Georgia.
If the move goes through, the Ipswich captain will link up again with Pompeyboss Harry Redknapp who released Holland during his reign as West Ham manager.