Town boss Paul Jewell has revealed that he made attempts to sign England internationals Matthew Upson and Jonathan Woodgate when they were available on free transfers earlier in the summer. The Blues lost out with the duo both joining Premier League Stoke, while Jewell currently has a bid lodged with a club for another centre-half.

Jewell says he has been looking to add to his central defensive ranks — which are currently depleted due to Ívar Ingimarsson’s thigh injury — all summer: “I want four centre-halves, that’s ideally what I’d like. The biggest problem is that we’re all chasing the same players.

“I’ve made lots of offers. We went for Upson, I know he’s left-sided but we were interested in him, but he was going to go to the Premier League.

“We asked about Woodgate but he was going to go to the Premier League. There are lots of names that the media haven’t mentioned that we’ve gone for and haven’t got because there were Premier League clubs in for them.

“That’s where we are. If you’re a player and get a Premiership team and a Championship team interested, more often than not you’re going to go to the Premier League team.”

The Blues boss says things didn’t get too far down the line with Suffolk-born Upson, who was a player in Town’s Centre of Excellence as a schoolboy: “We didn’t get far because it was always difficult. But that’s the type we went for. We spoke to his agent but unfortunately there was Premier League interest. This was months ago.

“The problem with a player like that is he is going to attract Premier League interest. That’s why I don’t comment on speculation or give the media names. I don’t think that name has been mentioned, I don’t think Woodgate was mentioned. I did see Sol Campbell mentioned but there was no truth in that.”

Upson, 32 was released by West Ham at the end of last season, while 31-year-old Woodgate, a former Leeds team-mate of Lee Bowyer, was let go by Spurs.

Photo: Action Images

Suzanna_Gekkaloys added 13:21 - Aug 11 Let me just make it clear to those who seem to display concerning signs of thinking otherwise... Just because we made attempts to sign Upson and Woodgate, it DOES NOT mean Jewell wasted his time by making no other enquiries whatsoever. He patently did not pursue these two centre-halves to the exclusivity of every other centre-half in professional football. These are just named targets to give you, the fans, a taster of the top-end calibre of centre-half he was ideally after. Paul Jewell is not playing a computer game with unrealistic parameters limiting him to a set number of enquiries during a time period. He is a real-life professional football manager, existing in the actual physical world, where multiple lines of enquiry can be pursued simultaneously, and he has years of experience of doing so too, so probably best just to let him get on with it, eh.

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Tiggs added 13:28 - Aug 11 The solid start finished on Tuesday!!!!!!
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icetruckiller added 14:10 - Aug 11 Seems bloody madess to go for Woodgate, constantly crocked, unless it was on a 'pay-as-you-play' contract.
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fifeblue added 14:17 - Aug 11 Where is Struna? Did we sign him or not?
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ncharles added 14:40 - Aug 11 I read somewhere, possibly on here, that a young Everton defender was tweeting that he fancied a loan spell with Town so he could get his career underway. Might be a good move to give and doesn't stop PJ searching for someone else on a more permanent basis. I like the thinking re Stoke if they've just bought in two central defenders there should be some available to go out.

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Churchman69 added 14:47 - Aug 11 Big wages Big chance of injury Lucky escape but good ambition.
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London_Blue added 15:07 - Aug 11 Suzanna_Gekkaloys <= will you marry me? I need some domination in my life and can't think of anyone I would rather deliver it than a football savvy chick!! ;)
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robdaful added 15:22 - Aug 11 Nice to see we aim high. And if you don't try you won't get.
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blue_em_away added 15:39 - Aug 11 Hmmmm... Thinking outside the box here but..... Why has PJ made this public? All it does is add to our disapointment that we don't have a quality center half. PJ has been quite clever with the media in the last few months, and I feel he is being this again now with a quality center half (maybe not quite Upson) about to sign up his sleeve. I wonder whom this spaniard is? ;)

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JeordieX added 16:18 - Aug 11 David Bentley on loan, another former Centre of Excellence youngtser let's try him.
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runningout added 16:45 - Aug 11 Not interested in players we didnt sign... only those likely to...
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Tractamatt added 20:12 - Aug 11 I know he's not a defender but has andrews signed yet surely thats more important than the players we tried to get but didnt really have a chance of signing of we're honest with ourselves. Been told theat he should be signing for the last 2 mornings and nothing, i'm thinking smoke screen.
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One_Matty_Holland added 20:44 - Aug 11 Definitely shows ambition by PJ but completely unrealistic! Maybe trying to attract players of this calibre may have resulted in us missing out on more realistic targets and we could have had them in place by now. These two are a huge risk for Stoke with the wages they are on let alone Ipswich who presumably let Fulop go due to high wages.
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s6blue added 21:40 - Aug 11 quality ambition but we would have never stood a chance
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BurleyForever added 22:15 - Aug 11 Good idea going abroad but I thought we were looking at Struna who looks class & is flexable
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