A not entirely convincing newspaper report this morning quotes Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric claiming that Town counterpart David Sheepshanks told him Italian keeper Matteo Sereni is on a contract worth £40,000 a week.

Mandaric says his club doesn't want to make similar mistakes to Town and Leicester, and is quoted regarding a recent conversation with the Town chief: "David Sheepshanks, the Ipswich chairman, said to me the other day, 'Milan, don't do what we've done'. He said, 'Don't buy an Italian goalkeeper, pay him £40,000 a week, then send him back a few months later.'"

While newspapers have on a number of occasions vastly inflated the wages of a number of Town players, the club has always refuted suggestions that players are earning figures as high as £40,000-a-week. TWTD understands Sereni's wage to be around the £22,000 a week mark and that he is the top-paid player at the club.

Back in February TWTD asked David Sheepshanks whether the majority of the first team were earning above £10,000 a week. He told us: "Not the majority of the first team, but a number of players are. There is nobody earning £39,000 and more, as one of the papers said this week."

Regarding players on £20,000 a week and above he suggested that only two had contracts at this level: "There might be one. And we have another very significant wage earner who is currently on loan at Brescia."

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