Town manager Roy Keane feels skipper Jon Walters has gone about looking for a move away from Portman Road in the wrong way. Keane understands that players change clubs, but feels there is a right way to go about things.
Keane says Walters should have waited until Town had agreed a deal with Stoke or one of the other interested clubs before stating his desire to leave the Blues: "I’m not criticising the fact that he wants to leave, players will come and go, but there’s a way of doing it. There’s a way of leaving a club and I think that’s the wrong way.
"He’d have been better waiting until the club had accepted an offer for him, then the player can decide. Players are trying to dictate transfer fees, when they should go and where they should go.”
Walters missed Tuesday’s Carling Cup tie at Exeter due to a virus — leaving the Blues with only six subs — reporting ill on the day of the game, which Keane says inevitably led to comment and conspiracy theories: "When you miss games you’re opening yourself up for criticism and we have to take his word for it, simple as that.
"If anyone thought it was me being clever and leaving players out, it makes no change to Jon’s valuation. We’ve a valuation on him whether he plays in cup games or not.”
Despite Walters’s probable exit, Keane says the player's performances on the field haven’t dropped: "Last Saturday he was outstanding for us. If Jon’s playing Saturday I’m sure he’ll give 100%.”
But Keane says Town will cope without a player who has been a key man in recent seasons if and when he moves on: "It’s the way of the world. Jon Walters has been a good player for the club but I think there have been some pretty good ones come through the club over the last 20 or 30 years and players come and go.
"Jon Walters wasn’t there the other night and we did OK and we’ll do OK without him on Saturday if he’s not there, and next Saturday if he’s not there.”
The Town manager says he wants a squad which is wholly committed to Town: "The club is bigger than anybody and we can’t forget what a good club this is. You’ve got to make a stand as a manager and a club.
"I’d rather lose the next 10 games with the young kids. I’ve no problem losing football matches and we’re going to lose a lot of matches this year, that’s the nature of the Championship.
"But let’s have 11 players who are 100% committed to us, not 99%. Half measures are no good to us. There have been too many players at the club like that, who have talked a good game, they’ve signed new contracts, got the pay rise, then they want another pay rise. Then the wife’s not happy, the dog’s not happy, the cat’s not happy. You can only play that card so many times.”
Keane says too many players sign contracts but don’t honour them: "Players should start reading the contracts they’ve signed.
"There are media commitments, which a player didn’t keep to last week because he was going to be pictured in an Ipswich kit. There’s a commitment to being a footballer at a football club when you sign a contract.”
Keane refused to confirm whether the player involved was Walters, who he says is still the club captain "but football changes on a daily basis”. David Norris, who skippered the Blues at Exeter, appears most likely to inherit the armband.
Walters seems likely to be involved against Burnley on Saturday while Keane waits for Town’s money men to sort out the deal which will give the player the Premier League move he craves: "We’ve got to get the right valuation for him, but that’s nothing to do with me, that’s up to the owner and the chief executive.”
Meanwhile, Town are reported to have shown interest in Rangers midfielder Lee McCulloch, who has signed a new deal with the SPL champions. McCulloch, who is also claimed to have been interesting Blackpool, had been a Town target back in Jim Magilton’s time as boss and the claim may be a revival of those links.