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

Realist added 17:37 - Aug 2 So Jewell says “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." Has he considered that no sensible decent player would want to play for the old scouse muppet as he is patently no good.
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