Tranmere boss Les Parry says he’s disappointed to see new Town left-back Aaron Cresswell leave Prenton Park. The 21-year-old signed a three-year deal at Portman Road today, TWTD having revealed that the Blues had won the race for his signature yesterday.
Parry said: "I'm disappointed to see Aaron leave. We've been speaking to him and his agent about a new contract since early last season in October and thought we had reached an agreement in February, but at the last minute he decided not to sign and move on at the end of the season.
"We've made him several really good offers to stay which would have made him one of our highest paid players at the age of 21, but there is only so much we can do to try to persuade a player to stay with us and in the end the decision was his.
"Aaron had a fantastic season in 2010/11 and has got an enormous amount of potential which is a credit to the youth staff and coaching staff at Tranmere.
"The fact he was able to keep a player as good as Zoumana Bakayogo - one of our best players in 2009/10 - out of the team last season and play 49 times shows how well he was performing and how much faith we had in him.”
Parry is now looking for an acceptable compensation settlement, due because the Liverpool-born youngster is under 24 years of age: "Hopefully Ipswich will make us an offer that truly reflects the value of Aaron's potential, experience and investment we have made in his career so far because the ones they have made so far aren't close.
"Ipswich say they've brought him in as potential, but he's more than that. He proved himself to be one of the best full backs in League One last season, which was reflected in the number of Championship clubs who showed interest in him."
If the clubs can't agree a compensation figure, the matter will go to a tribunal. Doncaster Rovers and Premier League West Brom were amongst the other sides chasing Cresswell, who trained with his new Town team-mates for the first time today.