Manager Paul Jewell says he wouldn’t be at Town if he believed the club was unwilling to go the extra yard to sign the players he wants. The Blues boss was speaking in the wake of last week’s failure to agree personal terms with former Swindon striker Charlie Austin, who subsequently joined Burnley.

Jewell says he doesn’t believe the failure to sign Austin was an illustration of the club not going far enough to attract players, citing the acquisition of Jimmy Bullard on loan: “I wouldn’t say that because if I thought that I wouldn’t be here.

“I think it’s important not to get carried away with one player, we’ve signed Jimmy Bullard from Hull and everyone knows Jimmy is on a lot of money there. They’ve stuck their neck out and done well there.

“Maybe Charlie Austin knows Eddie Howe, he was with him at Bournemouth. All I can say is that we tried and it didn’t happen, I would have liked to have had the lad here."

Jewell says Austin was impressed with what he saw at Town: “The kid looked around, I spoke to his dad and he was really excited but we couldn’t agree terms. I spoke to the agent late on the Thursday night — and the money we offered him was decent — and he said to me that he wants, out of courtesy, to go and speak to Burnley.

“I just said then that it wasn’t going to happen. He was on his way to Burnley overnight. I didn’t want to get into a tug-of-war really.”

Former boss Roy Keane was unhappy that the club was unable to land players such as Shaun Derry and fans have been critical of chief executive Simon Clegg since the move for Austin failed, a viewpoint Jewell feels is harsh: “Since I’ve been here it’s just one deal that didn’t happen. Whether that’s because of the chief executive, I don’t think it’s fair to say.

“My job’s football, I spoke football with the lad and I think he was happy to come, but at the end of the day if the player wants money that we don’t think he’s worth, there’s nothing we can do about that. It can be frustrating, but that’s life. You win some, you lose some."

Jewell says the club’s decision not to sell players who are out of contract in the summer — Crystal Palace made an £800,000 joint bid for David Norris and Damien Delaney — should be seen as a positive sign: “We could have cashed in on those players but we realised we’re in a dog fight and the owner and the chief executive, along with me, are not prepared to sell those players. I think that’s important to say.”

Photo: Action Images

bluemonday added 08:22 - Feb 1 maybe we should have signed Charlie Austin's Dad !! :)
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Bergholtblue added 08:24 - Feb 1 Well said PJ. Pointless in getting involved with a Dutch auction.
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bedsitfc added 08:42 - Feb 1 Burnley have taken a gamble on him if because they know they need to get promoted as they have a big wage bill and if they dont go up in the summer they will have to sell their biggest assets.
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pitseablue added 08:50 - Feb 1 Time will tell with Charlie Austin.
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Blue_Dwarf added 09:04 - Feb 1 Jewell is never going to publicly criticise Clegg, however I'm sure his private thoughts on this deal not going through would contradict the above! I have a feeling Austin will bang in the goals at Burnley and it'll prove Clegg should've wrapped this deal up!
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Fatboy added 09:05 - Feb 1 Big time Charlie.
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jas0999 added 09:08 - Feb 1 ... whichever way you look at it, Clegg led us to believe the new manager was appointed at the time he was to exploit the transfer window. One signing of a non-league player, with little league experience (nothing against the player - I really hope he turns out to be great) is I am afraid disappointing. This window promised much, but in the end delivered very little. Shame, but we move on hoping Jewell can get our current crop playing - hope he can get the strikers scoring some goals!

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SinghyITFC added 09:11 - Feb 1 Why not give Austin the extra £1000 or £2000 he was after? Surley him banging in 20 goals and firing us to promotion next season he would have paid that back! It's £40million that a club get's for promotion, Clegg = not a scooby son!
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blues1 added 09:24 - Feb 1 singhyitfc. the reason we wouldnt give austin the extra money is because we have a wage structure that would obviously have been broken if we had done. on its own, ok. but what reaction do u think that would bring from the other players here? yes, theyd allo want more money. where would that get us, yes, back to the dark days of financial problems. do u really expect ME to allow that to happen?

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E3Blue added 09:25 - Feb 1 Jewell: 'Whether that's because of the chief executive, I don't think it's fair to say.' Translation: 'We didn't sign him because of the chief executive, but it would be wrong of me to say so.'
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Fatboy added 09:27 - Feb 1 jas0999, I think that it was right to give the new manager the opportunity to make use of the transfer window. However, since PJ has come in he has stated what a good quality squad we already have and therefore he and Clegg probably didn't feel they needed to pay over the odds to get new players in. I'm disappointed that Austin didn't come to us, but he is clearly motivated by money and not football if he chose Burnley ahead of Ipswich.

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Blue_Fred added 09:36 - Feb 1 I'm not sure of SC's ability in negotiations - the summer will tell for me. I totally agree we have to stick to our wage structure - in fact I'd support a salary cap HOWEVER....Charlie Austin went to play for Eddie Howe - end of!! Get over it
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ClassyIpswichLass added 09:36 - Feb 1 Using his lovable Scouse charm PJ did the deal with Austin's dad, his agent, Charlie himself and even his gran. Charlie was then shown into Simon Clegg's office to simply sign of the dotted line. Clegg then handcuffed Charlie's wrists behind his back forced him to eat a hole in a pair of old Swindon underpants he'd rammed over his head. Fortunately, (for Charlie) he managed to slip out of the cuffs and out through the office window to be reunited with his negotiation team, jump in a taxi bound for Burnley. Players are never going to publicly say this is part of Ipswich's signing ritual under Evans and Clegg, however I'm sure this sordid practice will be exposed as soon as one of them chokes to death on the foul odour of their former club's undies. Clegg is not a football man and this practice is clear evidence of that. FOSC! Blue_Dwarf and other haters, please GET REAL.

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Worcester added 09:38 - Feb 1 LMAO You are a classy lassy
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TractorRoyNo1 added 09:45 - Feb 1 love the pic! but you are slagging off the wrong person, Clegg is only doing the bidding with the purse loaned to him by Evans. ClassyIpswichLass added 09:36 - Feb 1 Clegg is not a football man and this practice is clear evidence of that. FOSC!
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ClassyIpswichLass added 09:49 - Feb 1 TractorRoyNo1 I give up. Do you not detect any irony in my previous post?
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Tractorog added 10:02 - Feb 1 Sorry CalssyIpswichLass I think you'll find TractorRoyNo1 gets his mum to do all his ironying.
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itfc1981 added 10:02 - Feb 1 Hardly a glowing defence of Major Clegg, why take the risk get a decent one in? Jewell says we stuck our neck out for Bullard, shame we didnt do the same for Austin, just decent money. 21 players out of contract, this is poor Overpriced tickets this is poor Clegg doesnt know how much to offer players (plus all agants know we pay silly money to Martin) Even the Pompey promotion on the website shows a Cardiff badge, this reflects badly.

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smallridge4 added 10:03 - Feb 1 Simon Clegg needs to get out of our club now. ruining any potential signings that keano and paul want to make. We will never progress unless we attract better players.
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ClassyIpswichLass added 10:13 - Feb 1 Rumour has it that Charlie Austin got a feeling for the club and it's fans by reading some of the posts on this website. Sometimes I feel like slashing my wrists, and I'm a fan. Charlie probably thought he was on another planet.
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WorcesterBlue added 10:23 - Feb 1 Don't do it ClassyIpswichLass and keep trying to raise the standard on here - you and PJ have brightened up my January! However, Clegg is clearly a problem here for all the reasons itfc1981 cites. Also Keane was a disaster waiting to happen (and then happening) and the way Jim was sacked lacked any class. The trail of p&ss poor performance from our CX has continued ever since. I hear ME is a ruthless and talented businessman so clearly he sees something in Clegg none of us can! However, we have a good squad, some great new players coming through and I genuinely see us at least making a run on 6th place even if it is a bit late. C'mon the Blues.

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ClassyIpswichLass added 10:24 - Feb 1 Paul Jewel is doing everything to bring cheeky chirpy northern "lovable-geezerness" to our club, while Clegg hasn't even tried to relocate Suffolk to central London yet. Seriously, how can we expect to attract bright young talents to the club without going that extra mile?
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Blue_Fred added 10:33 - Feb 1 strangest thing is apparently Central London was interested, liked the facilities and was generally impressed with the direction of Suffolk when it looked around............... shame is that yet again Cleggy couldn't do the deal
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brian_a_mul added 10:36 - Feb 1 Austin wanted to play for his former manager. Whats wrong with that? Why do u think many of our players came here? Fulop, Edwards, Healy, Kennedy, Colback, Leadbitter, Bullard and countless other loans etc. Its a common occurance in football.
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MaySixth added 10:44 - Feb 1 Here's to Charlie Austin breaking his leg on his Burnley debut.
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