Blues boss Paul Jewell says Town continue to talk to Portsmouth regarding their triple bid for Jason Pearce, Joel Ward (pictured) and Stephen Henderson. The Town manager, who confirmed that Falkirk central defender Murray Wallace is at the club today, as reported by TWTD this morning, says the Blues could yet sign any number of the Pompey three before Tuesday evening's deadline.

Jewell said: “I just spoke to the owner after training and the two clubs [are talking]. It’s difficult because we don’t quite know who we’re dealing with, whether it’s the administrator [of Portsmouth’s parent company Convers Sports Initiatives] or the chief executive [of Portsmouth].

“We made an offer for three Portsmouth players last week. The names I’m not prepared to divulge, I don’t think that’s right.

“That was rejected and the clubs are still talking. Whether we get one player, two players or three players is still up in the air.”

He admits that Pompey’s financial situation — CSI are in administration while the club itself is facing a winding-up order — is not helping matters: “Complicated is not the word. It’s complicated to the nth degree.”

Jewell says the possibility of skipper Grant Leadbitter and Damien Delaney going the other way hasn’t come up in discussions he’s been involved in, although he has heard the suggestion mooted: “I wasn’t quite sure where those names came from because they’ve never been mentioned to me.

“When I spoke to [Portsmouth manager] Michael Appleton last week - and I’ve only had one conversation with Michael to tell him we were interested in the players - we never mentioned any of our players going there.

“As far as I’m aware at the moment, there’s been no contact, there have been no enquiries about Grant and Damien. I’ve heard that on the grapevine but it’s news to me.”

The Blues had an offer for Falkirk’s Murray Wallace accepted last week and Jewell confirmed that the 19-year-old is at Playford Road today for a look around and to talk personal terms.

Town, Brighton, Huddersfield and probably other clubs have all agreed a £300,000 plus add-ons deal with Falkirk for the former Rangers trainee who will return to the Scottish League Division One side for the rest of the season under the terms of those agreements.

Jewell said: “He’s been up here this morning but he’s got a few clubs to speak to. He’s a young lad and it’s a big decision for him.

“I know he’s been to Brighton and I know he’s going to a couple of places after us. We have to respect that.

“He’s one for the future. He’s probably not ready to go into the Championship quite yet but we’d like to bring him in and do that for the future. Whether that happens is down to a lot of factors.”

While Jewell ideally wants permanent signings, he says players could come in on loan if longer term deals can’t be done before the window slams shut: “In the Football League, at least the loan market is open to us, so even when the window closes tomorrow at 11pm, it opens next week for loans. So, it’s not as final as it is in the Premier League.

“We do have alternatives in the loan market but I want to start bringing in players here that we can have permanently.

“Whether we can do that with the players that we’ve mentioned [I'm not sure], there’s a lot of hard work. It’s been going on for weeks now, weeks and weeks, and it’s getting critical now because the window closes.”

Jewell says Town are not one of the clubs to have made an offer for Crawley striker Tyrone Barnett and is not targeting Liverpool youngster Jon Flanagan.

Photo: Action Images

TractorBoy666 added 16:39 - Jan 30 What he's saying then, if the Portsmouth players do get rejected then he will just loan more players. Loanee, loanee, loanee's...
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Hally543 added 16:41 - Jan 30 The money offered for these players has been poor throughout the 2 weeks, I don't know how we thought we could get all 3 for 2 mil lol. Why does it seem we've only been going for very few defenders, we should have been making offers to more than 3, I see Leicester had an offer accepted for a Nottingham forest defender lol
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jas0999 added 16:50 - Jan 30 I think it's disgusting that we may go into tomorrow nights game without more defensive options. I seriously hope PJ has not put all his eggs in one basket. PJ OUT. Clegg is also showing his worth ...
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Seasider added 16:53 - Jan 30 Oh dear still no RB or CB signed yet and only one day left,are we any further forward than at start of window,the next 24 hours will be defining.
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TractorMan added 16:54 - Jan 30 tractorboy2434 - God, change the record with the "we have no money" story Everything you have posted is just negative garbage and I see it doesn't matter whether it is here or to a news story you post the same unsubstantiated rubbish. We have an owner who injects £5m a season just to break even, before you add transfers into that. He's backed every single manager and has said Jewell is going nowhere anytime soon. We clearly have made 3 bids for the Pompey players, all the journos (including Phil!) know this and you can add in Powell and St Ledger too. Try another line, although I suppose copying and pasting the same tripe is easier? :)

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TractorBoy666 added 16:56 - Jan 30 Get Andrews Jewell! He's just handing in a transfer request according to SSN.
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Vizslaraner added 17:03 - Jan 30 I would love to see these signings but I have a bad feeling it aint gonna happen. I really hope I'm wrong! Be nice to see un-expected bids get accepted tomorrow that would lift our spirits! Us fans have suffered for long enough, we need a boost to get us up for the fight that lies ahead in the coming weeks. COYB
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Mark added 17:13 - Jan 30 We are always told that Evans, Clegg and Jewell work as a close knit team on such things, but Jewell sounds a little unsure about whether he is fully informed about things. I get the impression that the negotiations are all going on above his head, and if that is Clegg then on past form we can worry. I hope we do not leave Portman Road tomorrow night on the end of a defeat and with no new signings.

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dalianwasexciting added 17:18 - Jan 30 Loan window open soon - say no more.
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Stato added 17:26 - Jan 30 Andrews has handed in transfer request at Blackburn, can someone tell Clegg
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WarkyWonderLand added 17:44 - Jan 30 A week ago the headline in the eadt was " a week to save town" and in that week other than Stevenson who is not fit nothing has changed. We are really having the p taken out of us as fans. And come tomorrow night after 11 pm we will have ............. Before Wickham was sold he said we didn't need to sell. But we are not using the money we got. And jewells latest bluff is to try and keep us happy. Someone isn't telling us the truth. Still have a funny feeling someone is waiting in the wings if we don't get a win in the next 2 games. Coyb

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Ipswichbusiness added 17:48 - Jan 30 First of all, I don't blame Mr Evans who has put much of his wealth behind this club. Second, dealing with a club in Portsmouth's position is always going to be difficult. Third, any decent players are going to have other clubs after them and in our league position we are not the most obvious one for them to move to. That said, I am very worried that if we can't get any defenders in and Mr Jewell can't organise them properly then we are headed one way only and that is down.

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itfchorry added 17:50 - Jan 30 Hope that we are in the market for a new CEO
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itfchorry added 17:52 - Jan 30 Maybe Portsmouth have a CEO !!
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tearle1974 added 18:24 - Jan 30 BREAKING NEWS, Banks accounts have been frozen at Portsmouth. That means no deals can be made. Paul Jewell forget these 3 and yet again we have missed the boat as Billy Sharp is having a medical at Southampton and yet again we are after loan signings again. Sorry everyone but just get rid of this talk over the month on transfers. We will be left with only the cleaner and one man and his dog behind the goal by the end of the season.

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Dissboyitfc added 18:47 - Jan 30 nitroblue1970... great post ..made me laugh, and i think the ability to laugh is of paramount importance here, cos i cant alter anything right now, if this window closes and we dont sign any defenders, whos to blame? is it clegg or jewell or evans or all of them? all i know is someone must be accountable , evans other businesses have been successful, dont expect he has employed such incompetance to run his other bussiness... coyb

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camposlocks added 18:53 - Jan 30 Will Jewell be in the dug out or his office during tomorrow nights game? 31 days to sign a centre back and a right back....................................... 1 day left
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TractorMan added 19:22 - Jan 30 Tearle1974 - have you ever thought a club may have more than one account? Also the purpose of the freezing is to enable no money to go out so HMRC can be paid. They aren't preventing money going in, although money will go to administrator not Portsmouth anyway.
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brittaniaman added 19:30 - Jan 30 I said this morning that to sign 3 players was to complicated,, in the short time we had left,, and they were trying to involve 2 of our players as well BLIMEY !!! and tomorrow he has got to plot the downfall of West Ham with our original squad BLIMEY AGAIN !!!!!!!
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TimmyH added 19:45 - Jan 30 camposlocks & dissboyitfc - spot on!, there are no excuses if we don't get ANY defenders in, surely this was a priority?
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Hally543 added 22:26 - Jan 30 The money offered for these players has been poor throughout the 2 weeks, I don't know how we thought we could get all 3 for 2 mil lol. Why does it seem we've only been going for very few defenders, we should have been making offers to more than 3, I see Leicester had an offer accepted for a Nottingham forest defender lol
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thebeat added 22:30 - Jan 30 When did our club become such a joke? Ive never known a club be linked with and put in bids for so many players as we have in the last 12 months and come out with so little of them signed up, all we seem to do is alert other clubs to their potential and they end up goin elsewhere. I dont think these boys will sign and i dont think we have a plan B, its so unprofessional its laughable. If we go the whole month and only end up with a poor loan keeper and a £50,000 bloke from the Scottish leagues Clegg and Jewell should be fired, lets face it if we did our jobs as bad as they are doing their's we would have been sacked long ago. Why are we so slow and cumbersome when it comes to sighning players?

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