Ipswich Town manager Paul Jewell
Deals hijacked, unhappy family members, unacceptable valuations - Paul Jewell explains why he has missed out on his top transfer targets
By Stuart Watson
Friday, January 27, 2012
8:00 AM
FRUSTRATED Ipswich Town manager Paul Jewell says signing players is harder than many people think.
The Blues boss admits he missed out on many of his top targets last summer for a variety of reasons.
Instead he ended up building a squad packed with loanees and ageing players on short-term contracts.
The mix – he admits – hasn’t been right and the club finds itself just four points above the relegation zone.
Now trying to build for the future by bringing in some young talent, the January transfer window has again proved frustrating.
During an exclusive interview with the EADT this week – more of which can be read in tomorrow’s paper – the exasperated Blues boss indicated to a stack of A4 pages on his desk at the club’s Playford Road training ground.
“I’ve got a list there full with hundreds of players names,” said Liverpudlian, with the look of a man with the world on his shoulders.
“We watch them and watch them; make offers for these players, but the problem is that then draws in bids from elsewhere.
“All of a sudden that player – who looked in reach – goes to a Premier League club.
“I don’t want to tell you all the names we went for last summer, but I think it was well documented that we went for the likes of (Matt) Upson, who went to Stoke, and (Daniel) Ayala, who went to Norwich.”
Checking his phone between questions to see if a player’s representative had got back to him, Jewell continued: “I’ll strangle the next agent who tells me their player ‘just wants to play’.
“They all say that, but then there are always plenty more obstacles in the way.
“You wouldn’t believe some of the reasons I get given, late in a deal, for a player not wanting to come here. Family members suddenly deciding their son can’t live so far away.
“There are so many people claiming to represent players and clubs these days – I can’t begin to explain how tiresome and how time consuming it can begin to get.
“In the past you used to just ring up another manager, agree a price and the player would jump in their car and be on their way. It’s like that any more, there’s so much red tape.”
He added: “I think there’s also a misconception that Ipswich blow people out of the water when it comes to wages – we don’t.
“We’re not poor payers, but we’re not in the league that people seem to think we are.
“Deals don’t happen sometimes because everyone has to have a price. We are in an economic slump here and football isn’t above that.
“I will always tell the owner when a player is not worth a certain amount. I’ve got a responsibility to do so.
“I can assure you though that no player has slipped through our net through lack of trying.”
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- Roy Keane itching to get back into management
- Andy Drury had concerns when Ipswich Town blocked his move to Crawley Town
- Josh Carson set to sign new Ipswich Town contract
- Jack Ainsley nets winner for inexperienced Ipswich Town reserves
- Town’s Fab Four, one short of the Famous Five
- Fans speak: Luke deserves a longer contract
- Poyet’s words make a mockery of Town fans’ pipedream
- We love you too: Paul Jewell thanks Ipswich Town fans
- EX-Norwich man insists Town can make the play-offs
20 comments
You really make me smile jewell, always there to give reasons why young players will not sign for you and your ailing club. But never giving the real reasons they do not sign and they are. Ipswich Town are a club going nowhere, they have a manager who is totally clueless, they have a top exucutive who knows nothing about football and they have an owner whos only real interest is in promoting the olympics. Tell me, what young player would want to play for the town knowing they will be playing 3rd tier football next season, with no chance of success whatsoever even at that level???
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ged scott
Friday, January 27, 2012
crippen spot on. when jewell talk about things falling out of the sky. at leeds. what a load of tosh. the worst manager at portman road we have ever had.
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mike benham
Friday, January 27, 2012
Agree with Jonas - but the real key to the turnaround was the result of the appointment of a new chief executive - David McNally -- who managed to "prise" Lambert away from Colchester.
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Herbert Codling
Friday, January 27, 2012
Who said "Don't bring me problems bring me solutions"? The only people I feel desparately sorry for are the season ticket holders who paid good money in advance to watch this cataclysmic destruction of the club. Instead of buying more players why does'nt ME invest in a capable CEO who has the ability to produce a sustainable stragegy which is cascaded down to staff and supporters alike? In my opinion the club are as good as relegated, why, because instead of building from grass roots they have tried and failed to buy short term success.Now we are trying to attract young players to the club, but when we had young players like Rhodes and Wickham we had no idea how to manage them and when we sold them we sold them for a pittance. But why learn from previous mistakes as currently illustrated with Carson? Dropping him at Leeds was'nt tactical it was downright stupid because he and not Murphy is a player for the future. If relegation means building a team out of young talent, the backbone of which emanates from our own youth team then bring it on.
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MOTT MIKE
Friday, January 27, 2012
Crystal Palace have sealed the signing of highly-rated defender Michael Chambers from Dulwich Hamlet - according to SkySport. Did we put a bid in for him? How is it that CP can snap up decent players . . .
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A12
Friday, January 27, 2012
Its all very well for PJ to say how difficult it is to sign players but as Norwich discovered you reap what you sow.Players of any distinction will not resurrect your clubs position, they will only put pen to paper when your fortunes change.Chicken and egg. You may survive the drop this season, but when youre at the bottom there is no magic solution. It took Norwich 3 seasons to stop the rot and begin the turnaround ,involving relegation,board changes, an inspirational manger and player investment before the club returned to glory. These are the ingredients. Good Luck!
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Jonas
Friday, January 27, 2012
Player's agents are a pain in the neck and I have every sympathy with PJ. I still think that given the right encouragement we already have a squad good enough to stay up and move up the table. And better the devil you know........
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JOHN BURLS
Friday, January 27, 2012
If you can only talent spot players that everybody else is after you are going to lose out on them to bigger clubs - its not rocket science. The trick therefore is identify talent from the lower leagues before other teams - or - shock horror have a proper academy system !!!!!! It seemed to work for Bobby Robson - but what did he know ?????
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Old Timer
Friday, January 27, 2012
Strengthening the squad is one way of helping to secure Championship status for next season but surely we must have a plan B or even a plan C. If the statements from PJ are true, and we have no reason to doubt them, we understand and accept that getting in new players is a difficult process. However, for our Manager this is distracting and heightens the risk that, like our defence, his coaching team, takes their eye of the ball. On the web chat the other day one reply was that PJ has refused to appoint a defensive coach. After so many lacklustre and poor performances and ensuing bad results is this wise? No doubt all of our coaching staff are ‘being defensive’ with regards to their own performances is the fact that we lack a specialist in this area our Achilles heel? Should the coaching staff be strengthened so we can get the best out of our ‘on paper we look good’ squad? Just a thought.
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Tractors R Us
Friday, January 27, 2012
Come on Our Kid, Ipswich Town is the 16th biggest club in this country, taking account of ground capacity, avg gates, stats, trophies, history, finances. We're not expecting internationals with baggage, just young single guys, share digs who would die to pull on a Superblue shirt. We had Gio here and RK didn't we. They must be queuing up outside Playford Road gates in the frosty mornings!!!!!!!!
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Brian Wren
Friday, January 27, 2012
All the more reason why we should be doing all we can to make the academy a success. That means putting money into it and actually playing the youngsters that come through in OUR team not somebody else’s. No negotiations needed, no tiresome toing and froing with other clubs and their officials. Even in our heyday and some of the fine players we were able to bring in, the basis of our success was bringing up players through the youth system, made by Ipswich, for Ipswich. So let’s see more of it rather than PJ’s constant whining.
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Mike Rotch
Friday, January 27, 2012
The way to get players is to show the club is going somewhere other than down a division have a CEO that can really understand what goes on in a players mind and a manager that the player can really believe in what he is telling them,sadly i fear all three points are a failing at this club so what we get is a load of same old same old blame everyone but the people in charge at the club,yes agents are greedy but they want what is best for their players at the end of the day and they all think that coming here is not in either their or the players best interest at this present time,time for a re-think on what real value for money is these days because sadly if this squad manages to stay up this season with no new signings the gates are bound to fall yet again.Mr evans you say the fans need to back the club,well i say to you show us the way and give us some kind of hope because so far we have had a lot of promises since you took over and nothing apart from some newly painted turnstiles to show for it
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peter samuels
Friday, January 27, 2012
There is no reason to believe that Jewell is not trying to get players but has he considered that because they do seem to end up elsewhere - and Premier League clubs cannot buy all of them - there must be some reason why they do not want to play for Ipswich. Perhaps the reason is too close to home to admit and that they just do not want to play for Jewell or the people handling the negotiations are not competent. I suggest that we try a more radical approach and keep with the players we have for now and try a different management team and CEO. I am quite sure that in ordinary circumstances reasonable players do not become bad overnight provided someone that knows what they are doing is in charge.
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SussexTractorBoy
Friday, January 27, 2012
He is right of course.The sport has become a cut-throat ruthless business and a million light years away from the days of Robson and co. Yes, Sir Alex Fergusson and Arse Wenger have moved with the times but they have always had spending power and given Ipswich's current plight it must be a nightmare trying to recruit any half decent player these days. I sympathise completely because it is agents and friends of agents and even friends of friends of agents that dominate proceedings these days. Clegg certainly has his faults and he comes over as extraordinarily green when it comes to his negotiating skills but Paul Jewell knows that it is not entirely his fault, given the current economic climate and the unwillingness of players to commit their loyalties to any particular club.
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FRANK WESTON
Friday, January 27, 2012
Excuses, excuses, excuses. Funny how other clubs manage to attract and complete the signing of players. This litany of self-justification does nothing to explain the contract situations at the club or the bizarre handling of our own promising youngsters. Baffling and depressing.
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Mike Wyatt
Friday, January 27, 2012
What part dont they understand. That if you dont offer the right offer of course players and club's will go else where.....You can't play we are only paying this take it or leave it. As we have found outso many times to our cost Its just False economy and get left with mostly those that we really didn't want anyway. Of course we mustn't pay stupid amounts As well..But how many times have we let players slip though for that extra few hundred thousand pounds and regetted it..We are now lose more each week by the lack of supproters turning out for home games Not good business sense at all .......Clegg & Jewell Out.
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david bradley
Friday, January 27, 2012
What part dont they understand. That if you dont offer the right offer of course players and club's will go else where.....You can't play we are only paying this take it or leave it. As we have found outso many times to our cost Its just False economy and get left with mostly those that we really didn't want anyway. Of course we mustn't pay stupid amounts As well..But how many times have we let players slip though for that extra few hundred thousand pounds and regetted it..We are now lose more each week by the lack of supproters turning out for home games Not good business sense at all .......Clegg & Jewell Out.
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david bradley
Friday, January 27, 2012
I'm sorry but in the state we currently are and the form we are playing with nobody from a higher league would want to come here, pretty much nobody in the same league would, and I don't think anyone in the league below would be interested either. It's a nice catch 22 effect in that it seems to be seen that we need new players to get us out of the rut but the rut is stopping players from wanting to join us. You made the current team....USE IT!
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Chris Church
Friday, January 27, 2012
At present, given the state of our club and the way its being run I do not think we could sign Murray Walker or even a Murray bloody Mint!! Jewell and Clegg does this not show you that no-one wants to play for you and that we do not want you. Get out!!
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Crippen
Friday, January 27, 2012
I would have more sympathy if other clubs rarely made a solid transfer as well, but over the last year, it has just tended to be us. Something is wrong in the way we deal with transfers. Either we are being careful with money (not such a bad thing), or we are expecting every deal to be too cheap. Regardless, we MUST have a fall-back plan, which has always been our youth set-up. It stuns me that the 'Pros' don't see this.
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I am Spartacus
Friday, January 27, 2012