CITY have made a “substantial” offer for Kieffer Moore.

The Ipswich striker has become one of the hottest properties in League One after scoring 13 times on loan for Rotherham.

And Edin Rahic confirmed that City have declared an interest with Ipswich owner Marcus Evans.

He said: “It would be stupid if you weren’t in for Kieffer Moore.

“We’ve made an offer and think it was a very good offer, a substantial offer, and we’ll wait. We wouldn’t offer anything disrespectful to Ipswich Town.”

City would face a huge fight to land Moore, who is also thought to be interesting Barnsley.

Peterborough announced earlier this week that their bid had been accepted. But owner Darragh MacAnthony tonight pulled out of the race, claiming the player would be expecting nearly five-figure weekly wages at any new club.

Rahic also made it clear they would not risk busting the club’s wage structure for any signing.

He added: “There is a lot of interest and that’s the reason you have to keep cool. We are still League One and you also have to find a way not to upset our own players.

“If others are asking for salaries we don’t pay, we don’t want to change our strategy. We can be successful with our team thinking - we can’t have one star who gets two or three times the money.

“But it is a substantial offer and a competitive one for a League One club when there is also interest from the Championship.

“It’s also down to the player to think about his future.

“Is there a massive chance with Bradford to go up? Yes.

“Is there a massive chance with other clubs? Probably.

“Is there a strategy behind the club? Yes again. But that’s up to him.”

MacAnthony's comments would suggest that Moore is most likely to end up in the Championship.

City chief operating officer James Mason said: “With the bid, the club have proved their commitment to invest and challenge. But there has to be a ceiling while in League One.

“We cannot undo our whole structure at put ourselves at risk.

“We can point to costly lessons in the past if we operate this way.”