Town target Joel Ward will sign a four-year deal with Crystal Palace on Monday, according to reports. The 22-year-old Portsmouth defender or midfielder was understood to be weighing up a move to the Eagles or one of other interested parties but now appears to finally have made his choice.

Ward is believed to be due at Selhurst Park on Monday to undergo a medical and to put pen to paper on a deal for an undisclosed fee understood to be in the region of £450,000.

On Wednesday, TWTD reported that Palace were strong contenders for Ward’s signature, however, with the wages they were offering believed to be significantly below the contracts available elsewhere, it had been thought Ward would instead join one of the other chasing clubs. Palace’s relative proximity to his family in Portsmouth is likely to have played a major part in his decision.

Leeds, previously understood to be the frontrunners, dropped out of the race having failed to raise the cash to finance the deal, while Burnley, Blackpool and Sheffield Wednesday were the other interested parties.

Ward opting not to join the Blues will be a blow to manager Paul Jewell, who has been targeting the one-time Bournemouth loanee since January when a bid was accepted but personal terms turned down.

In March, Ward was at Portman Road to talk about a loan move before the deadline but Pompey’s administrator pulled the plug on the switch with the crisis club then still having a chance of salvaging their Championship status.

Photo: Action Images

Texaco73 added 19:01 - May 25 Yes. Really glad about this. The guy is a pathetic little mummy's boy and an average player as well. I don't think it would've worked out with us the way he has jerked us about. PHIL! No more stories on this Easter please.
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bluey420 added 19:01 - May 25 Here we go everyone blaming Jewell n Clegg I'm not that bothered let's face it J.Ward was never going too sign 4 us: january no emergency window no n wasting 2/3 weeks more n still know: puzzling why he is choosing palace they are not going too b in the premier league next year: I can't believe we don't have plan b or c I said all season M.Lowton a far better player: I now wait 4 phil too put several stories saying we r linked with ? ? ?

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menacinho added 19:04 - May 25 This is nothing to do with our supposed "inability" to sign players and everything to do with the fact that he never wanted to leave Portsmouth in the first place and was almost certianly looking for a club where he didn't have to move house. Palace fit the bill perfectly. It's May 25th. Loads of time to sign players still. If we have still signed no-one by the start of pre-season on the 5th July, then that would be more cause for concern. But that is ages away.

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Eireannach_gorm added 19:05 - May 25 Only time I can say I am happy about a ward closure. He was never going to be an Ipswich player with better offers on the table. Good to see we didn't get into a bidding war. If we could get a proper CB I would be happy.
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Garv added 19:05 - May 25 Jas if PJ was relying on 'has beens' wouldn't he have offered Sonko and Bowyer, amongst others, extensions to their contracts? "Cresswell and JET apart", haha that's it, don't let them get in the way of a good PJ rant. Smith, Martin, Cresswell and JET are all ancient aren't they? And thats basically the spine (if we can call it that) of our team.
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cressi added 19:08 - May 25 Please everyone if he was any good a lower end premier league club would have taken a chance forget and move on .Remember yes Portsmouth had ten points deducted but they went down at the end without a wimper Henderson Norris Pearce AND Ward in my view none of them any better than whats out there get players who want to be at Ipswich
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menacinho added 19:11 - May 25 Jas, whilst I share your frustration about PJ playing Bowyer instead of Hyam in the latter part of the season, I really don't think that there is anything more to Ward's decision than pure geography. He simply wanted to stay near his family. If Palace weren't in for him we would probably have got him, being the next nearest club in for him.
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meekreech added 19:18 - May 25 Perhaps he was dettered from us by ex players talking !
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manualthetisfanclub added 19:21 - May 25 So glad this crappy saga coming to an end,good luck palace,400 odd grand for an average player,proberbly their transfer budget gone on him! We all should just get used to the fact we are just an average club and don't seem that big attraction to players now.
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yorksblue added 19:21 - May 25 Ambitious eh!
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cartman1972 added 19:21 - May 25 This has to be the longest and most drawn out transfer saga I can remember , we have wasted hours of journalism covering this and in all fairness he isn't even that great , if he was someone else would have offered even more money to snap him up.....complete waste of time and energy . What is more disconcerting is the fact he chose a complete shower of incalcitrant shi*e over us , glad its all over and we can start to concentrate on people that could have signed for us ages ago and actually want to play for us....i believe Mr Jewell and Clegg could have done no more so lets stay off their backs on this one , this is agent and player power talking .

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cartman1972 added 19:22 - May 25 PS and Phil kindly refrain from even mentioning his name for future reference as the saga is over and we don't care what happens to him now or even in 10 yrs when he is playing for Palace in the Ryman league .
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howdonblue added 19:24 - May 25 Hear hear raycrawfordswig zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz He never wanted to come here from the start !!! He's probably no better than anything here anyway.. It's all rather boring the whole drawn out affair
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bluey123 added 19:27 - May 25 Says it all more chance of promotion at Palace just shows where we are
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Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 19:34 - May 25 Hallelujah!
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Blue041273 added 19:34 - May 25 Let's move on now. We shouldn't be spending any time bemoaning the failure to sign a player who clearly didn't want to sign for us. All the clubs in for him were very much of a muchness and whatever motivates him to consider Palace as the best overall option is for him to chew on. Whatever, I can't see that this is the player we should be breaking the bank to get in.

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ozzydog added 19:36 - May 25 Bet ITFC did not offer a 4 year contract But the whole farce has made the owner and ceo look pretty incompatant...................again
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Sindre94 added 19:37 - May 25 Now wake up Town fans. We arent that attractive anymore
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ozzydog added 19:41 - May 25 Sindre94 Nothing to do with that at all, a 4 year contract is pretty rear nowadays,I reckon ITFC probably offered more money but on a two year deal
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Mark added 19:42 - May 25 As soon as I saw the 4 year contract I thought there was no way we would have offered that! So, a long contract, security and playing nearer to his home town and family did it in the end. As others have said, I felt we were always his last choice. Let's move onto some more young, exciting players please. The clock is ticking and it would be nice to do some deals!
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muhrensweet4thijssen added 19:42 - May 25 It says the contract that Palace offered was less than others offered give the guy a break I dont think he believes that we are a club that are going to challenge the top six next year. AS IT STANDS, ANYONE DISAGREE???? We need something to spark some excitement about our beloved blues! A signing that gets people looking at us as contenders. I believe that Mr Evans does need to splash some serious cash or we will slip even further down the Chumpionship table and our last 2 seasons flirtations with relegation may become a love affair with league 1. PLEASE< PLEASE< PLEASE I BEG YOU MR EVANS make offers players cant refuse and buy us out of this league. Make town THE club that players cant say NO to

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Sindre94 added 19:43 - May 25 Ozzydog I agree to be fair. Joel Ward for me just wanna play football, and he doesnt seem ambitious, cause Palace the type of club who realistically wanna play regularly in the PL. Hope we could get him, but now move on.. ITID<3
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DiamondGezzer added 19:46 - May 25 Thank Christ for that - the end !
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WoodfordTim added 19:46 - May 25 well, at least I won't keep having to look at the web site 4 or 5 times each day to see if he's coming to Ipswich. Great shame. Obvious PJ wanted him. Must be difficult attracting players to our area, right out on a limb in the Country. But, to lose out to the Palace! Got to move on. Hopefully PJ will have some good news for him & us very soon
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dirtydingusmagee added 19:48 - May 25 next........next.........next ...........next...............next......................................................oh well there are always the emergency loans !we'll be ok, after all if we make mid table next year we will have achieved expectations !
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