Chief executive Simon Clegg insists that the Blues' Academy is amongst manager Paul Jewell’s priorities. The Town boss has been criticised for allowing a number of youngsters to leave the club over the last year and for not giving younger players such as Luke Hyam regular first team opportunities.

Clegg dismisses suggestions that Jewell is less interested in the club’s youth policy than has traditionally been the case with Town bosses: “I don’t accept that [the Academy isn’t amongst Paul’s priorities].

“Certainly, in my limited experience of managers at this club, Paul is out with the youth teams much more regularly than perhaps some other managers.”

Fans have been critical of the release of young keeper Cody Cropper amongst others, while players such as Tom Eastman, Caolan Lavery and more recently Callum Bennett have turned down professional contracts — in some cases on wages understood to be in the region of £250 a week - in favour of deals elsewhere.

Eastman joined Colchester last summer, Lavery came close to signing for Bradford towards the end of last year and has had trials elsewhere but is still a free agent, and Bennett has been offered terms by newly-promoted Sheffield Wednesday.

Clegg says youngsters, like more senior players, are offered the deals the club believes they are worth at that time: “We will offer appropriate contracts to individuals who we believe are worthy of contracts at a level which we think is appropriate for them.

“I’ve made it very clear that I’m not going to pay over the odds to bring players into this club and I’m not going to pay over the odds to young players who are yet to prove their worth.

“They’re only as good to this club as we believe they are worth,” he added. “The way that I judge how successful the Academy is is by its outputs — delivering players into the first team or driving money to help compensate the running of the Academy [if they move] elsewhere.

“The manager is heavily involved in those discussions in terms how much potential he believes each individual has got and how much they are worth.

“I think that we have amply shown that for the right players there will be first team opportunities at this football club — Byron Lawrence, Joe Whight, Connor Wickham — but Financial Fair Play is having an impact.”

Photo: Action Images

Photo: Action Images

itfcjoe added 17:14 - May 8 The first team opportunities mentioned for Joe Whight and Byron Lawrence amount to 10 minutes! I think Jewell/Clegg needs to realise that this U21 league is a good opportunity to keep relatively cheap resource on the books (out of a budget that doesn't effect FFP) in order to allow players to develop at a slower rate - not all players are ready at 18 and need until 20. Jewell's dismissal of the U21 league says all we need to know about his feelings towards the academy

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Superfrans added 17:20 - May 8 Joe - you have totally misunderstood Jewell's comments on the U21 league, or are misrepresenting them. His concern is that young players should be playing against older players to help develop them and improve them, not against other kids. Having an academy isn't a virtue in itself. There is only any point if the young players are nurtured to make the step up into the first team.

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Kesgraveblue57 added 17:40 - May 8 I know as a fact two of our best Academy lads have gone to Norwich as it a better place to be,it's a no brainer to stay at Ipswich instead of going Norwich a crying shame that !
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mightytown added 17:45 - May 8 well, if were looking at bringing in 4 or 5 younger players anyway, then this whole academy shake up may serve us well. we can put our new youngsters into the first team and let the academy players progress in the under 21 league. well, thats the plan anyway!
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Seasider added 17:45 - May 8 I dont think Joe has totally misunderstood Jewells comments,as this is how I also interpreted it.Have also heard Manager talk about youth v experience and he wasn't too enamoured then;but that was last year,and seems to softened his antagonism somewhat especially as his 'Dads Army' experiment failed miserably. The Major seems too conservative with contracts in terms of both money and length,which is why we only retain about half of youngsters to whom we offer contracts;and I cant remember the last time we signed any player when in competition with a rival club.Perhaps this will now improve with the seniors now that Marcus seems to have taken over negotiations;as in the past have dragged on interminably and we always lose out..

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itfcjoe added 17:48 - May 8 Franz I have DM'd you about this rather than pollute here. The 18-21 issue is huge for me, players in key positions are not generally ready at 18 (GK, CB and CM). Wide areas and up front are easier to bring through as they can get minutes as sub. The players we are losing at 18-19 can be developed against top players their own age and we don't have to make do with poxy behind closed doors friendlies

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jas0999 added 17:50 - May 8 PJ is NOT in IMO a manager who favours youth and younger players. He prefers older has beens and generally plays with one striker (although recently in a more attacking formation). This is just more spin to convince us of what a great job PJ is doing. There will be some who agree that PJ is doing well - but personally I think he has done a very poor job to date. results and recruitment strategy to date unfortunately backs this up. I accept however that others will disagree with me and respect their opinion - but mine is we will not progress under PJ and have seen little to suggest otherwise (consistently).

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itfchorry added 18:16 - May 8 Clegg Out
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h32 added 18:32 - May 8 itfcjoe - in total agreement with you.
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ipswich134 added 18:36 - May 8 I think Jewel prefers to send them on loan to harden them. I think if he learns to be more flexible he will succeed for us. IMO
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Bangor31 added 18:37 - May 8 jas lets not bring attacking football into it as we have scored more this season than any other since 06ish, a good five or six years ago!!
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naa added 18:40 - May 8 jas: whilst I generally disagree with you and your comments in the second half of the season were incredibly repetitive and dull, it is nice to see you being a little more contrite, and at least accepting that others may have different opinions. Personally, I think that this coming season will show whether Jewell will work out for us or not. He's spoken about his transfer dealings, and accepted that experience didn't work, so now is his chance to show us that he means it. We don't seem to have that much coming through the academy so he will have to sign the younger players he talks about (I personally think he'll be going for mid-20s players, not very young ones, as we need performances sooner rather than later). With Cresswell, Drury and JET he's shown he can get it right so let's see how he does this year. I think he'll need a whole season (as Reading this year showed a manager needs) and after that it should be obvious to us all if we're heading the right way or not. But for all our lack of results in general I still believe that our football has improved greatly over RK's dismal reign.

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naa added 18:50 - May 8 Oh but jas must point out that your hints that Jewell is defensive are a complete joke. We've consistently scored well this season, have generally played attacking football (to the detriment of our defence) and to say he favours 1 up front isn't true at all with any of his clubs before us. We all know you wanted RK to succeed, now he really did play defensive, dire football.

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harlingblue added 19:09 - May 8 Agree with naa, the last season is the first that I have enjoyed a percentage of home games, for many a year. The signings of Cresswell. JET, Drury and I think Stevenson have added to the squad, all will be better for getting games under their belt during a difficult season. The flirtation with loan and aging players has been a negative, while players with baggage Chopra, Bullard, owe us big time. Smith despite the odd lapse is emerging as a capable CB and must be signed on a decent deal, with a more mature partner added to the squad.

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Mark added 19:10 - May 8 I think Hyam should have been played more and I think we should have offered Eastman at least a year's contract, but other than that I can't criticise Jewell too much on the players coming from the academy as I just don't think they have been good enough. As for how attacking Ipswich are, look at the goals scored stats: 2011/12: 69 (Jewell) 2010/11: 62 (26 Keane, 36 Jewell) 2009/10: 50 (Keane) 2008/09: 62 (57 Magilton, 5 Keane) 2007/08: 65 (Magilton) 2006/07: 64 (Magilton) 2005/06: 53 (Royle) 2004/05: 85 (Royle)

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Dozzells_Bobblehat added 19:17 - May 8 Jas - we all know y don't like PJ, and fair enough but to suggest he is negative is ridiculous. Only four teams scored more goals than us and we scored the same as Reading. I think we all know the problem is the other end.
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casanovacrow added 19:26 - May 8 all talk no actions. if not going for top band of academy status makes it a priority it explains who we haven't got a CB or GK in yet either 8-) its like we are expecting to breed a race horse from the offspring of dobin and mr.ed bad times ahead
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JustSpivvyChops added 19:33 - May 8 “They're only as good to this club as we believe they are worth,” As i've said 1000 times, the owner and CEO's perception of A players market value, is way off...........this recent set of comments explains everything. “I've made it very clear that I'm not going to pay over the odds to bring players into this club". It's called market value and other clubs are paying it, which is why they are successfully signing their transfer targets. Some clubs even pay below market value and still sign their man, eg Warnock signing Pearce for £500k .....Clegg my old mucker, you are seemingly capable of neither approach. ATTENTION SIMON CLEGG ------- A PLAYERS VALUE IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK IT IS WORTH TO ITFC!!!! FFS MAN, TRY TO UNDERSTAND THE GAME, YOU ARE GOING TO DESTROY THIS CLUB

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Ipswichbusiness added 19:41 - May 8 Hmm, so our offer to the better of our young players is £250 p.w. with almost no hope of getting into the first team. Can anyone think why they might be going elsewhere?
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stinkiusminkius added 19:48 - May 8 I would say that Hyam is the only younger player that I feel has been unlucky by PJ (and the flip side of that is that he was replaced by leadbitter who played a blinder in every game following that). Also PJ has wisely used Cressy, Jet and Smith who can all be considered young. As for the real young uns, PJ sees them a lot more than us, and unfortunately it seems that they're just not good enough. I was very excited by the prospect of Lavery from the reports, but it seems that level is very low, and what's happened since has not exactly shown it to be a PJ mistake. I think we should perhaps bow to someone who has greater knowledge and close up view than us.

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Superfrans added 20:04 - May 8 ITFCjoe - I agree with you about young players, we need to develop more, and for a lot of reasons. Closer connection with the fans, more long-term commitment to the club, more economical (cheap), easier to build a playing style (a la Barca) etc. But if the players aren't good enough, they are not good enough. We can't just hand out first team places as if they are Panini stickers because we want more young players in the team. We have to sign the right players, develop them properly, give them opportunities at the right time and show faith at the right time too. Something is going wrong somewhere along the way, as we all know. But I don't believe it is just at the point where the players are drafted into the first team. It is clearly more fundamental than that.

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itfc1981 added 20:31 - May 8 Clegg should be on about £50 a week. If he followed his own rules.
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itfc1981 added 20:32 - May 8 Jordan Rhodes
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rexron added 20:52 - May 8 This is propaganda!
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CornardBlue added 21:26 - May 8 Agree with Mark the youngsters coming through are just not good enough, most of this is down to Keane sacking Bryan Klug who a few seasons ago coached the Town youths winning cup team, Bryan was such a poor coach that Spurs snapped him up to run there youth acadamy. Jewell made some very poor signings last summer but he did sign two young gems in Creswell and JET, where are the young guns Keane signed.

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