Paul Jewell says he wants to keep midfielder Jimmy Bullard at Portman Road and that the loanee from Hull has told him that he wants to stay, but the Blues boss warns that it will be a very difficult deal for the Town to do, particularly with Premier League clubs also interested in the 32-year-old.

Speaking yesterday, Jewell said: “I spoke to Jimmy this morning. He wants to stay and I want him to stay.

“I spoke to [director of football operations] Adam Pearson at Hull but it’s a difficult deal to do. Everyone knows the contract that Jimmy’s on, but it’s a deal that we’d love to do and I know Jimmy would love to do it.

“I know there are a couple of Premier League clubs interested in him but we’re in there fighting. It all depends on Hull basically, the ball’s in Hull’s court.”

Bullard has two years left on his £45,000-a-week deal at the KC Stadium, which the Town manager says the Blues certainly wouldn’t be able to get close to matching: “I don’t think anyone expects that we can pay his wages. We’ve paid a fair chunk this season and we’d love to do the deal but not everything can be done.

“Hull obviously helped us with the deal [this season] but we paid a decent amount for Jimmy. He was a huge success with the fans and in the team.

“There’s not going to be a bottomless pit but if I want a player who is going to give us a better chance of getting up there, [owner Marcus Evans] will back me.”

Jewell says he was sorry that Gareth McAuley, who looks set for West Brom, and David Norris, who appears to be on his way to Portsmouth, although with one paper this morning linking him with QPR, turned down new two-year deals, but has started the search for their successors: “I’m disappointed to lose them, but things move on.

“We’ve got to learn lessons that we don’t want key players getting out of contract because you’re always susceptible to them getting offers from elsewhere.

“But we’ll endeavour to get replacements and maybe even better ones. They’re both good players, good professionals, but this is football and it’s always evolving.

“I can’t speak highly enough of them as people and players. I inherited a situation which wasn’t easy and we’ve got to try and learn from our mistakes.”

Photo: Action Images

muhrensleftfoot added 09:09 - May 10 What a great player Jimmy is. However we shouldn't break the bank to get him in view of his knee problem. I suspect finances will prevail anyway, & he'll sign for a premier league club, as he is certainly premier league quality
0

blueoff added 09:09 - May 10 Build a team around Jimmy & watch us fly
0

JimmyJazz added 09:13 - May 10 Maybe the truth of our situation is beginning to become apparant to PJ. Just waiting to hear news reports that ME is not prepared to back PJ as much as he expected. Never mind signing Jimmy Bullard PJ, keep looking at players from Exeter, Dagenham and Luton who cost peanuts.
0

suffolkpoker added 09:17 - May 10 jimmyjaz - i couldnt careless where PJ signs his players from, if its Hull, Luton or the kings head division 3 East sunday league. if he thinks they are good enough, im not going to doubt the man!
0

Bugs added 09:19 - May 10 JimmyJazz, It' doesn't mater what they cost as long as they do the business on the pitch!
0

WoodfordTim added 09:25 - May 10 What a difference Jimmy has made to us & it would be great to have him with us next season. But, at £45,000 per week over the next two years, the cost of his wages with NIC would total £5 million. A terrible expense for Hull, who must have been mad to give out a contract like that in the first place. Bearing in mind his unfortunate history of injuries, any club will be taking a huge risk if they took the contract over completely, so even if we have Premier League rivals for him, for any club the deal has got to be on the cautious side. Fingers crossed we can get him!

0

Liverpool_blu added 09:29 - May 10 If Hull want the Wages off there Books, then let him go on a Free. Cant we then Give Bullard a Signing on Fee plus an Ipswich Wage..
0

GreenwichBlue added 09:36 - May 10 Nothing new here. In light of his knee issues we shouldn't break the bank despite how good he is.
0

itfc1981 added 09:44 - May 10 Is Clegg going to pay out of his own pocket for letting these players go?
0

tractorgirl2 added 10:17 - May 10 Really hopes he says, it dose say alot about the guy that he has had other offers but still says he wants to stay with us. Hopefully we can sort something out.
0

Karlosfandangal added 10:37 - May 10 Pay Hull a million to a million and a half to help end Bullards contract and offer him 20k a week for 3 years. Big gamble but if he help get us up and attract top players then worth that gamble
0

comeonthegoodtimes added 10:59 - May 10 Mmmmmmmm hard one this... Are Hull going to sell him cheep to a team hopefully going against them in the promotion hunt next year or opt to sell him to a team out of this division? Personally i wouldn't want to sell him to a rival in the same leauge so we have to think about that to. IF and that is a big if they do decide to sell him to us then i think he is well worth the risk at splashing the cash, £25,000 a week and a signing on fee is worth in my opinion the attacking football and flair he brought to our team this season. Plus he is the ideal person to attract other good players to our club... I think we really do need 6/7 good players though so it's a tough on.....

0

cobbold_fanatic added 11:09 - May 10 break the bank, sign him up!!!!!
0

rosseden added 11:13 - May 10 ''Pay Hull a million to a million and a half to help end Bullards contract and offer him 20k a week for 3 years'' current contract = £4.68m over 2 years cost to Hull £2m fee we pay Hull goes to bullard to get rid of contract, we pay £20k per week on three year deal = £5.1m over 3 years. Jimmy works out with the third year of his contract essentially grossing him £10k p.w. in reality if he stays for 2 years with hull on the bench, is anyone gonna give him 10k a week when hes 35? Possibly not, only risk is if someone else comes in for him on better terms now? then we'll see if he does really want to come here for footie reasons or not.... him and Dyer are both a bit of an exception when looking at this sort of deal as they are very wealthy.....

0

andygizmo added 11:23 - May 10 mmmm let's see - Break the bank!! Didnt we do that once before and ended up with a CVA pi**ing off lots of local businesses in the process? And have we learnt nothing of the Leeds, Portsmouth, Plymouth, et al fiasco's. ME is a businessman not an oil rich sheik. He will not break the bank thank god and we will succeed on the merits of the manager and his team he puts together. Next fiasco - West Ham - relegated, £80m debts and a very nice big stadium they won't be able to fill with any decent player leaving after the last kick of the season.

0

roytheboy added 11:34 - May 10 You can do it Paul, it could well be the difference at the end of next season whether we have a chance of going up or not, it is a deal that really should be done.
0

Hungry_Badger added 11:36 - May 10 Unlikely still but I would actually love him for life if he stayed.
0

comeonthegoodtimes added 11:41 - May 10 Andygizmo, is your surname clegg by any chance? I agree not to break the bank but we do have to take a punt every now and again otherwise we will be in the same situation as this year and be looking at a mid table finish at best...... I hate to say it but Norwich took the punt and went out and got 5/6 players in with a bit of quality and look where they are now, even if they come down next year, as long as they don't go mad and spend millions then there going to be sitting pretty for a while.....

0

algarvefan added 12:02 - May 10 There is no doubting Jimmy's qualities on an off the pitch.....however his knees mean he will no doubt miss part of the season, so we need to be careful how much we spend on a man who is coming to the end of his career.
0

AmberAndBlack added 12:13 - May 10 This is where you guys are going to see thru Bullards BS. Remember all those "It's never been about the money" comments? Well, if he gets a sniff of the Premiership from these 2 top flite clubs (whoever they are), you won't see him for dust.
0

denhamblue added 12:16 - May 10 this is he isnt he is getting boring,we all know barring a miracle he wont!
0

BrettenhamBlue added 12:17 - May 10 Can't help feeling that he will move into the Premiership next season. We could do with a LOT of new players in the Summer, does PJ really want to blow most of his wage bill on Bullard? Would love to see him stay,- but feel it might be the last we see of him in a blue shirt..... It will be interesting to see who he is targetting...
0

comeonthegoodtimes added 12:28 - May 10 In: Sharpe - Doncaster Westwood - Coventry Bullard - Hull Coppinger - Doncaster Meite - West Brom Kean - Tottenham Out: Norris Mcauley Wickham Murphy
0

CobboldNeal added 13:00 - May 10 Looks like our first new signing will be James Coppinger from Doncaster.
0

itfc4eva added 13:02 - May 10 he was a great signing for us and if jewell can signs player like him then watch us contend for promotion next season. hopefully he can snub teams like qpr and others and sign for us.
0

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls