Boss Paul Jewell has dismissed suggestions that the Blues’ out of contract players are holding the club to ransom. On Saturday the Town manager revealed that Damien Delaney had agreed his deal and is set to put pen to paper today or tomorrow with Gareth McAuley and others likely to follow.
Jewell says the delay in the players signing their new terms shouldn’t be misinterpreted: "I have to stress here that the players aren’t being greedy. They aren’t holding the club to ransom as people might think.
"It’s players just trying to look after themselves and I have no problem with that. As a manager I see those players playing day-in and day-out, Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday.
"That tells me that they want to be at Ipswich. Hopefully, I think things will be sorted out very quickly now.”
The Blues boss says the club can’t allow 21 players’ contracts to run down in a similar manner again: "We shouldn’t be in this situation, but we are. I think as a club we’ve all got to learn from it. If we let our players run out of contract there’s going to be speculation.
"At the end of the day, some people will leave the club, that’s life. But the club will survive and go on whether I’m here, the owner’s here or whoever. The club will go on and on.
"But the players whose contracts have been up since I’ve been here not once have they complained to me or ducked an issue. I think they’ve given everything they’ve got and I think you saw that at Bristol City.”
Jewell had particular praise for central defensive duo Delaney and McAuley for their performances in Saturday’s 1-0 10-man victory at Ashton Gate: "They’ve been terrific ever since I’ve been here.
"They weren’t great the other night against Middlesbrough but that was a one-off. I think Gareth and Damien have been outstanding since I’ve been here.
"Gareth got a knock on the ankle early on but his attitude, as well as everyone else's, was absolutely terrific and he dug in there.
"He won every header. Every time the ball came into our box, there was a blue shirt. If it went to a red shirt, they were getting harried and closed down. The effort from the players was terrific.”
In addition to Delaney and McAuley, Colin Healy, Brian Murphy and Arran Lee-Barrett are the other senior players weighing up deals, while talks with skipper David Norris were ongoing last week with Jewell hopeful that the midfielder will stay at Portman Road.
New contracts have also been offered to six of the first and second-year pros.