Town boss Paul Jewell refused to be drawn when questioned about some of the legion of strikers who have been linked with the club in the last few weeks. Adding at least one frontman to his squad is top of the Blues manager’s summer wish-list
Asked specifically about his reported interest in Blackburn’s Jason Roberts and Portsmouth’s David Nugent, Jewell said: "It’s a waste of time me commenting on speculation because it adds fuel to the fire.
"What I would say is that we’re in the market for strikers. I can’t stop people writing speculation, but I’m not really going to comment, I’d rather tell you when it’s done rather than give a quote about being interested in this player or that player.
"I’d rather do our business quietly and luckily enough, you guys haven’t found out who we’re after yet! That’s the way I like it.
"We’re always interested in good players. Jason Roberts did really well for me at Wigan and David Nugent scores every time he plays against Ipswich.
"He’s obviously a free transfer and Roberts, even if he isn’t a Bosman, might be free anyway. We’re in the market for players who might get us goals.”
Jewell says he takes a hands-on role in transfer dealings, a different approach from his predecessor Roy Keane, who allowed chief executive Simon Clegg and owner Marcus Evans handle the business end of deals: "It’s something I want to have an input into. I don’t want to be sitting at the negotiating table with the agent and talking about money all the time, but I want to have an input on it.
"I think it’s important for me as a manager to pitch a player at a certain level of transfer fee and maybe their wages, I think that’s only right and I’ve done that most of my managerial career.
"I think the manager’s role has changed from when I first started. I know a lot of managers now target the player, then tell the chairman or the chief executive to deal with it.
"That to a certain extent is fine but I certainly want to have an input because at the end of the day I’m the one asking the owner to spend some money.”
While the former Wigan and Bradford boss has specific potential new recruits in mind - the first perhaps coming in as soon as next week - he admits that transfer plans are always fluid: "I could be here in a week’s time and the targets we’re after could be elsewhere or have decided against it and we might have had an offer for one of our players.
"Nothing is set in stone in football, it’s like evolution. When you’ve got your team, suddenly something happens to take it away from you.
"It’s important that we have Plan B as well as Plan A and also Plan C because sometimes things change quickly — just when you’re about to get your team ready for next season, an offer comes in for one of your players and he’s gone. You never get comfortable in this job.”
Meanwhile, Jason Scotland says he's keen to stay with the Blues next season, despite the Town boss's stated aim of adding more strikers to his squad: "I want to be here, I've got another year on my contract, the manager wants us to be pushing for promotion.
"He will bring in new players as well, maybe other players might be leaving, contract talks are still ongoing with various players. We want to be in the top half pushing for promotion and I want to be a part of that."