Blues manager Paul Jewell says midfielder Grant Leadbitter has told him he wants to stay with Town beyond the end of his contract which is up this summer. Last night, the 26-year-old was linked with a move to fellow Championship side Middlesbrough.

Jewell, speaking prior to the Boro story breaking, said: “I spoke to Grant on Thursday. It was a football conversation really. Obviously we want to keep him and I just wanted to see what he was thinking.

“We had a long conversation and he told me that he’s keen to stay. So, we’ve just got to try and sort out the financial side of it, which is up to Marcus and Grant’s agent.

“But before we started talking, I just wanted to be sure. I think knew what the answer would be but I wanted to hear what he said about the football side of it and what his views are.

“If he’d said to me ‘I’ve been here three years, I need a change', there’s no point in going down the route of making offers, but he says he enjoys it here and I think you can see over the last six weeks he’s been terrific for us.

“I think the frustration for Grant is that he knows he can be a really good player and for different reasons it doesn’t seem to have happened for too long here. But he looks a different player to me at the moment, he’s full of confidence and he looks like he’s got goals in him.”

The Blues boss says the £2.65 million summer of 2009 signing from Sunderland has been helped by playing in a more confident team recently: “You can talk about players looking different players but he’s playing in a team that’s confident.

“In days gone by, even when I’ve been here, he’s looking round and people are not playing with confidence and that spreads like wild fire throughout the team. All of a sudden he’s now playing with supreme confidence and the team is and it helps everybody.

“You may think he looks a different player but he’s playing in a team which expects to win matches now rather than hoping not to get beaten.”

Leadbitter, like Carlos Edwards and Jason Scotland, will have to accept a reduced wage as the Championship moves to a break-even model next season. But Jewell says that’s not just an issue for the Blues but for all clubs at this level: “It is my problem but it’s the same problem that other managers have got as well. Football is suffering like everyone else out there. And Grant’s aware of that.

“I was talking to Tony Mowbray after the game the other night and he was saying they’ve got nine contracts up at Middlesbrough this summer and he doesn’t think any of them will get offered more money than they’re getting now, in fact most of them will be offered less. That’s the way it is.

“I’ll leave that up to Marcus and Simon Clegg to deal with. With the Financial Fair Play rules as well we have to cut our cloth.”

He says players will still be well paid but less than they are at present with more of an emphasis on earnings based on achievement: “We’re not going to pay the lads buttons but they have to be realistic.

“You want to reward people for success and I think in days gone by people have been rewarded too easily for being in the Championship.

“We want to reward our players — and certainly I get rewarded — if we’re successful. We want to pay our players for success just like in the rest of the club.”

Photo: Action Images

Photo: Action Images

Ipswich24 added 09:15 - Mar 31 Good news if true but didn't he say same about Mcaulay and Norris last season. The idea of having to earn your money by performing well, win bonus, goal bonus etc is fantastic news. This is how it should be to motivate players and get everyone pulling in same direction.
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walberswick added 09:18 - Mar 31 It is very unkikely for him to stay at Ipswich if he has been offered £5k a week. It appears like all our transfer dealings we are a complete shambles.
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sudburyblue16 added 09:20 - Mar 31 Substitiute Leadbitter for Norris and we have the same story from a year ago.
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IpsRich added 09:23 - Mar 31 This same story was posted exactly one year ago today about David Norris. http://www.twtd.co.uk/news.php?storyid=18166&otd=y We all know how that ended. Regardless of what players have "said" to PJ and ITFC, the reality is that these players are only loyal to themselves.
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CornardBlue added 09:29 - Mar 31 I don't think we will be spending a lot of money this summer after reading Paul Jewells comments, clubs are wary now of falling into the same trap as Portsmouth. It was reported in the press recently that QPR signed players in the last transfer window on 60K a week and never put a clause in there contracts that if they are relegated they would have to take a drop in wages, this is madnes.

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Garv added 09:34 - Mar 31 Norris Norris Norris Norris Norris Norris.
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BillBlue added 09:41 - Mar 31 Guys, you are all commenting on media speculation which is one of the many problems from which we all suffer today. IF Grant Leadbitter wants to stay and IF we offer him a new contract and IF he signs it then I will be delighted. I fully understand how many people feel about his lack of past performance and his apparent lack of interest in the team but this could have been down to many things including loss of his own form or unhappiness in the way the team were playing and so forth. For the past several games he has been a revelation and shown us his true worth so, please, get off his back and let him make a coherent choice about his future in case all this detrimental verbiage makes him choose to leave. IF he does stay then next year he will add to what is becoming a very exciting team. COYB

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RYITFC added 09:47 - Mar 31 I can't see him accepting a pay cut at this stage in his career. It's alright for the likes of Edwards and Scotland as they are coming into there final years and aren't know realisticly they won't get that sort of deal somewhere else. Leadbitter's at the age where someone won't mind paying him £15K a week if they can get him on a free as he has plenty of years left ahead of him. This has got Norris and McCauley written all over it.

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KenDubZ added 09:57 - Mar 31 Sign him up, sign him up, sign him up!!
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michaeldownunder added 10:10 - Mar 31 Cannot see any championship team paying him 15,000 a week, even teams relegated this season nor is he good enough for a premiership team. His is an OK player on a good run of form, but six weeks out of three years hardly makes him a top player for any side
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Dog added 10:30 - Mar 31 Far too much is made by people on here about media speculation. If he stays then it will be great for town (yes great!). He is a good player which we need to have in a squad (decent squad of 18-20 players) if we are to make a challenge for the play offs/promotion next season. We all know how players suffer with form and settling in, but he is definitely turning the corner and his best years are ahead of him - unlike that idiot Bullard. Why on earth did we waste money on that clown???. And why do clowns on here think he would be a replacement for Leadbitter. We need to jettison Bowyer, Sonko, Bullard and Wright and get fresh decent players in who want to play for us and prove themselves. They do not have to be million pound signings. just hungry players who can control and kick a ball, and someone with a bit of vision to make a pass forward. looking forward to the pre season for what i suspect will be a radical overhaul.

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Michael11 added 11:26 - Mar 31 Should have sold him last year, he's literally had 3 decent games for us and he still managed to cost us two points in one of them by missing a penalty. Time to move him on, soon enough all of Keanes wasted millions will be gone on free's.
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Wickets added 11:38 - Mar 31 On his way to Middlesbough? more cash and back home.
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itfc1981 added 12:00 - Mar 31 Let him go, only plays well when HE needs to.
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cromwellblue added 12:32 - Mar 31 As pointed out by those with some intelligence taking "Linked" & "Speculation" as FACT is a little dumb. Let's just wait and see. I actually hope nobody at the club ever reads this site, many comments are frankly ridiculous and unrepresentative. We have in excess of 15,000 regular attenders at home games and a big story on here gets 100-150 comments. Assuming there are no multiple submissions then it's no more than 1% of the support. While everyone is free to offer opinions it doesn't make you right or the club wrong. The club is doing the right thing in dealing with wages now, we will see the benefit in time because when sanctions become an issue we have no problems.

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StochesStotasBlewe added 13:50 - Mar 31 If as a club we are serious about promotion next season, then players of Grants ability at this level will be essential to that aim. We have short memories as he was head & shoulders above most of our squad in his first season here, was no better or worse than many earlier this season, has been great for the latter part of this one. PLEASE STAY GRANT.
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Keaneish added 14:16 - Mar 31 Norris left due to contract length, not money.
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PauloJulio added 10:30 - Apr 1 Cant see him signing on reduced wages tbh. Papers say we'e offered him £5k a week compared to the £15k he is allegedly on now and Middlesbrough are prepared to offer more. Wouldn't think our offer is that low as that as PJ said they wont be earning buttons. Can see him ending up at somewhere like WBA as he's on a free and still only 26 yrs old!
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