Gillingham turned down a club record fee to keep Bradley Dack at the club.

Bristol City were willing to pay Gillingham £2m, plus add-ons, for their top scorer.

The Championship side had already been knocked back previously, with bids around the £1m mark, but on Monday they doubled their offer to try and clinch Dack’s signature.

A number of other clubs enquired about the 22-year-old on transfer deadline day, with Ipswich understood to have been one, for a player who has scored 14 goals so far this season.

Boss Justin Edinburgh confirmed the interest.

He said: “There was an offer of £2m from Bristol City, which was turned down.

“We were starting to get a few enquiries from other clubs, but the chairman made it quite clear to everyone it was a case of no-go.”

Gills chairman Paul Scally had previously said he didn’t want to sell his prized asset and he stood his ground on Monday, refusing to cash in on the goal-scoring midfielder.

The £2m fee would have smashed the record fee Gillingham have received for a player, that being the £1.5m Manchester City paid the club for Robert Taylor back in 1999.

It would have also easily beaten the amount the Gills received from Southampton for keeper Paulo Gazzaniga in 2012, a fee believed to be in excess of £1m.

Dack has been with the Gills since the age of 14 and recently made his 100 start for the club. He won the young player-of-the-year award at the Gills last season.

During the current campaign he has been in top form, making him one of League 1’s star players.

Gillingham’s rivals Burton Albion did cash in during the window, however, losing leading scorer Nasser El Khayati to QPR, managed by their former boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.