© Provided by Football FanCastPremier League - Huddersfield Town v Leicester City
Interest is hotting up in reported Queens Park Rangers transfer target Alex Pritchard this summer.
What's the talk?
That's according to a report by Last Word on Sports, who claimed that both Derby County and Birmingham City have now joined the race for the 28-year-old, who was released from Huddersfield Town earlier this week.
QPR and Bristol City are also credited with an interest in the £2.52m-rated attacking midfielder, who joined the Terriers from Norwich City in an £11.12m deal back in January 2018.
Bhatia must avoid move
Having impressed during his time at Norwich, with the midfielder scoring eight goals and providing 12 assists over his 43 appearances for the Canaries, it would be fair to say that Pritchard has not quite lived up to his price tag since making the move to the John Smith's Stadium.
Over his 83 fixtures in all competitions for Huddersfield, the former England under-21 international has managed to score just three goals and register three assists for the club - having last found the back of the net when they were still a Premier League side two seasons ago.
Indeed, over his 18 appearances in the 2020/21 Championship - only six of which came as starts - the 28-year-old blanked in terms of both goals and assists, as well as creating just one big chance and averaging a mere 0.1 shots on target per game, culminating in a disappointing average SofaScore match rating of 6.60 - ranking him as Carlos Corberan's joint 11th-worst performer in the second tier.
As such, despite Pritchard's early promise - previously being dubbed a "talented" player by one-time Spurs team-mate Christian Eriksen - QPR chief Amit Bhatia must simply avoid making a move for the midfielder this summer at all costs.
However, this is not only down to the former Tottenham man's disappointing metrics in recent seasons, but also because his potential arrival could stunt the development of one of QPR's brightest talents in Ilias Chair, with Pritchard and the 23-year-old sharing the same position on the pitch.
With QPR looking very much on the up after an impressive second half of the season, a move for Pritchard this summer would appear to be something of a backwards step for Mark Warburton's men.
In other news: Get him gone: Warburton must ruthlessly axe "massive" £4k-p/w QPR dud this summer - opinion
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