Town boss Paul Jewell admitted he’s still some way from assembling the team he hopes to field on the opening day of the season. The Blues have fallen to disappointing pre-season defeats to Conference side Luton and League Two Southend in recent days

Jewell says he’s a long way from knowing the team which will face Blackburn Rovers on August 18th in the Blues' opening Championship match: “It won’t be what it was today, let’s be brutally honest,” he said after last night’s 2-1 loss at Roots Hall.

“It’s nowhere near good enough at the moment, let’s be honest about it. I think everybody knows that.

“Everyone knows that we need two or three players in. We’ve got to make sure we get the right type of players in.”

So far this summer Jewell has signed right-back Elliott Hewitt, who is out for another few weeks having undergone hip surgery while with Macclesfield, central defender Luke Chambers, keeper Scott Loach and loanee midfielder Massimo Luongo.

In addition to those players, Jewell is after a big striker and, judging by last week’s bid for Doncaster’s George Friend, who subsequently decided to join Middlesbrough, and the Blues’ continuing defensive woes, another centre-half, amongst others.

The Liverpudlian says he’s constantly working to add to the squad: “I wish sometimes people would come and sit in my office. I’m never off the phone trying to get players in.

“I spoke to three Premier League managers today about players but they all said the same old thing — we’ll see what we’ve got left come August 31st.”

He admits he’s frustrated, adding: “I must have tried for 20 players but for different reasons it hasn’t happened and I’ll continue to try and improve the squad.

“I know that the team we’ve got now isn’t good enough to get us to where we want to get to.”

But the Town boss is confident he’ll get at least some of the players he’s after before the campaign begins: “We will bring someone in before the start of the season, at least one, if not two, if not three.”

Meanwhile, Jewell played down the chances of former striker Connor Wickham rejoining on loan if he were to be made available by Sunderland, as was reported over the weekend: “I think we’ve got first call on Connor if he becomes a loan, but I also think we’ve got to pay three-quarters of his wages, and we haven’t got that type of money.”

Photo: Action Images

austractor added 13:07 - Aug 1 We got better results last year with Andy Drury and Luke Hyam in midfield than we did with Jimmy Bullard and Keith Andrews. Signing "big" players is not enough to turn us into a successful team.
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Tractastic added 13:18 - Aug 1 'We're Nowhere Near Good Enough At the Moment' Does PJ include himself and Clegg in that quote? Not really the kind of message to send out to the fans who will be forking out their hard earned cash to watch the blues? Almost as though he's pre-empting a poor season. Here we go again......
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Morgan added 13:19 - Aug 1 Firstly I am not sh***ng myself about this and share many of JET's views on pre-season and the negative culture of the fans that we develop. However.... I understand the difficulty signing players when we are on the budget that we have but I would have liked to have started to see some improvement dealing with set pieces at some point over the last couple of years when it has been identified as our biggest weaknes by everyone. I am a bit fed up of hearing the same comments as much as I share PJ's frustration. All involved need to up their game, improvement won't happen just by talking about it, if we haven't got the money to improve the squad then beat it into them! Get it together guys not long to go until Blackburn when the results matter and there is nowhere to hide.

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Keaneish added 13:21 - Aug 1 Danny Shittu from QPR. Job done. Not elegant but we don't need elegance. We need basics!!!
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Keaneish added 13:24 - Aug 1 Actually, thinking about it Shittu, Heskey and Murphy, none of them elegant but we have plenty of that...power, experience and work rate...
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TennesseeBlue added 13:28 - Aug 1 Has he still not learned his lesson? Look, whenever we go down into the lower leagues/non league, we find gems who are available at bargain prices, who want to come here, and the deals are concluded in a swift and timely manner e.g. cresswell, drury, hewitt. Whenever we try and get big name, big earning Premiership/Championship players, they never/rarely want to come here, and the whole thing descends into farce. It seems like he is beginning to learn his lesson in the transfer market, then we regress back to square 1. He really is clueless at times.

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Tiggs added 13:36 - Aug 1 You lot will all realise one day (and I hope it isn't too late) that Paul Jewell is not the manager to take our once great club forwards. He really does need to be given the heave-ho along with his sidekick. It is frightening to think about how much money has been wasted on poor, very poor signings. He does not have a clue on how to assemble a team strong enough to compete at the top of the division. Move on Paul, admit you are not good enough. A nice guy but.....

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Warkys_Tash added 13:39 - Aug 1 @SuperReuser I know the figures thank you..as reported in the press. We also know that the club's running costs are running at a loss of over £10M a year. So obviously the Whickham money was used to plug the gap. We also know taht the club were 40M in debt when Evans took over, but he bought that debt for 8M and the banks wrote off the remainder, however the club still owe him 40M etc..plus 10M a year getting added to the debt for runing costs..making the club £66M in debt at the last count. (Evans is owed 8M plus the 26M we have run up in debt since his take over - therefore Evans debt is approx 32M so far) However, the point I am making is that we are not reinvesting in quality players to get back in the Prem so Mr Evans can get the £90M golden ticket and make a (an alleged) cool 58M profit - if we got promoted this year. So please don't try to tell me about the figures, it has all bene reported in the press and is there for all to digest.

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Cattee11 added 13:44 - Aug 1 Warky_Tash... Yeah cause we all know that the press speak the truth :/..
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Warkys_Tash added 13:48 - Aug 1 Cattee11 We can only work with the information we are given - but consider this. Why do you think Evans wanted Keane in to get a quick 2 year promotion to the Prem? Why was PJ allowed to get in old Prem legs like Bowyer & Bullard on expensive contracts? The sooner we get up the less it eats into that 90M. Its all about those Dead Presidents, my friend. Not Football.

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Cattee11 added 13:52 - Aug 1 I do agree what we do owe millions to Evans, I do feel that Clegg and Evans are now taking a different approach, as the quick promotion is not even close. If we look at recent promoted sides (including scum) they had 3 main things going for them.. 1) great togetherness 2) Young hungry players 3) DECENT FANS. The only problem with this is, Jewell or whoever, cant seem to get young players in. We seem to have come to a hault! Its VERY fustrating cause with recent signings it looked like we were building.

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TownLad21 added 14:03 - Aug 1 Id much rather the club stayed in good financial position than spend way too much money on players with big wages, the signings have been good so far and people just need to get behind the team next season, playoffs are a possibility
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runningout added 14:10 - Aug 1 Bullard will be worth every penny should we bring in decent signings, only not sure where our scouts are looking.. it should'nt be in the prem or championship.. and if so, they should be here before the end of this week.. if not, forget it... Harsh but true
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bedsitfc added 14:15 - Aug 1 in jewell i trust
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alliedaz added 14:23 - Aug 1 reading all these comments the board and all involve must relize the fans are losing interest and sick and tired of these negative comments jewell is using
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casanovacrow added 14:39 - Aug 1 Paying off debts or not Marcus Evans broke promises to us fans. He stated we had money too spend before wickham was sold then he stated the wickham cash would be used to get additional players into the club, how much of that have we spent on getting new players in? can go on about the wages all people like but the wage bill has gone down since the promises also. Smells like Evans either has lost faith in Jewell or interest in the club.

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Hockley added 14:56 - Aug 1 Last night's performance should have told PJ that the 4-1-4-1 formation that we played in the first half, with Chops completely isolated up front, does not work. Couldn't defend crosses, midfielders continuously passing backwards, no pace ... need I go on. Our best player was Luongo who we are bringing on for Spurs next season.
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Legend added 15:01 - Aug 1 I think that Evans is losing interest in the club to be honest. Let's face it since he bought the club he has been spending millions but losing millions every year. His idea of a quick fix and a Premier league cash windfall has has long since gone! It will take a massive investment and a top quality manager to get us up quickly. If not we will continue to plod along like we have been doing the past 5 seasons. We are miles and miles behind the big guns of this league, and at a real push we could just scrape sixth spot and that is with lady luck on our side for the whole season!!! Where are the players we were promised that would be here before the start?? On paper we will start the new season with a weaker squad of players than we started last season with! Before i get shot down please take a moment to see where we are going, Can you honestly hand on heart see us finishing in the top six? top eight? At the current moment i sure as hell cant! Im Ipswich through and through but these are dark days, we are a million miles away from getting promoted. Expect yet another mid table season as its whats on the cards even before a ball is kicked!! COYB!!

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Paulc added 15:03 - Aug 1 “I know that the team we've got now isn't good enough to get us to where we want to get to." - Paul Jewell 31st July 2012 "I know that the manager we've got now isn't good enough to get us to where we want to get to, and I've said that since the day of his appointment" - Me, just now!
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eaii added 15:15 - Aug 1 LOL is all I cam manage after reading that, I say it before and I will say again 'this season is all about Paul Jewell now' he cant moan about the lack of support and signings because he should have done that a while ago. On paper our squad is short but not sh,t! it is all about motivation, fitness, formations and selections!
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del45 added 19:55 - Aug 1 PJ Said at the end of last season he wants to get the new players in way before the start of the season with just 18 days to go, where are they i mean good players not left over's.
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suffolkpunchdrunk added 21:30 - Aug 1 Yet another Punxsutawney PJ moment on yet another groundhog day at Portman Road.
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Dissboyitfc added 22:14 - Aug 1 PRE-season friendlies and any talk from managers b4 the season mean very little. Lets remember other classic quotes shall we? What about the one where keane says he will get us promoted and hopefully in his first full season, what happened?( and it followed a close season of great expectation by many ) I will tell you what happened, it took 15 games to chalk up our first victory against a struggling Derby. You only have to look at the olympics to know that expectations can be a burden and a blessing and to be honest if by christmas we are way off the pace, then we can have a go at moaning....coyb

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Warkys_Tash added 13:31 - Aug 2 Legend Your post is spot on - all except it pains me to say that its 7 years in the doldrums, not 5! - we have not reached the play-offs since Joe Royle's penultimate season. And for all you others who say its moaning, its not moaning its just pure fact. and it saddens all true ITFC fans.
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Realist added 17:33 - Aug 2 So the wonderful Paul Jewell motivational people skills strike again. "We are nowhere good enough at the moment". The players are bound to respond to that. NOT. When is that scouse muppet ever going to learn that you do not wash your dirty linen in public. Does Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourhinuo, Pep Guardiola et al slag of the ability of their players in public. I don't think so. It looks like we are in for another long season of mediocrity.

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