Boss Paul Jewell says that if loan midfielder Kieron Dyer is fit and playing well he definitely wants him at Portman Road next season. The 32-year-old, who is out of contract at West Ham in the summer, has joined his old club on loan for an initial month but with the Town manager tentatively eyeing a longer term deal.
Jewell said: "We’ve taken Kieron on a month’s loan, and that’s all it is at the moment. We’ve also taken Jimmy until the end of the season and all of a sudden people are all mentioning whether it will go beyond the end of the season to next year.
"Sometimes it’s no good talking about things until they actually happen, but what we want to do is bring quality players into a quality football club. That’s what we’re trying to do, whether that’s Kieron Dyer or somebody else we don’t know. I certainly know that if Kieron Dyer’s fit and is playing well, I definitely want to bring him here.”
The Blues boss stresses that not too much should be asked of the midfielder too quickly: "He’s a quality player. I think it’s important that we don’t expect too much. He’s been out of regular first team football for a while.
"We’re pleased to get him here for a month and he’s pleased to get here. Let’s see how things go. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves.
"We’ll just take each and every day as it comes. Hopefully every day Kieron will get stronger and more confident with his body and I’m sure he’ll excite the fans, he certainly excites the players. The players are delighted to have him here.
"He’s played here before, he doesn’t live too far down the road and we’ll just take it day by day and hopefully at the end of the month we can extend it.”
The Town manager says Dyer let nothing stand in the way of his return on Friday: "As soon as he found out we were interested, he was here.
"His partner was due to have a baby last Saturday and there was no call to ask if he could have Saturday afternoon off. That tells you he’s keen, or a bit squeamish, I’m not sure which.”
Jewell has rated the former England man since his first spell with the Blues: "I remember coming here with Bradford for a night game and we got beaten 3-0 and he was just sensational. He’d have been 19 then. He was an unbelievable athlete - great energy, good footballer. He was a Rolls Royce.
"He did well at Ipswich, moved on to Newcastle, then West Ham. He had a horrendous leg break at Bristol Rovers I think it was and ever since then he’s been playing catch-up.
"He needs a break and hopefully that might come with us. The change of scene might do him good.
"But we have to be careful, obviously the main concern is his fitness. If he can get a few games under his belt, his confidence might just grow.”
Jewell was at Carrow Road last night along with assistant Chris Hutchings and coach Sean McCarthy to watch Norwich beat Bristol City 3-1.