Town boss Paul Jewell says he’s still waiting to hear whether last week’s bids for a striker and a winger have been successful. The Blues manager is also searching for another central defender as he continues to strengthen his squad ahead of the start of the season.
Jewell said: "We made an offer for a wide player on Friday and I’m not sure where that is. I’ve not spoken to the owner yet, I’m still waiting for him to come back to me to tell me whether it’s been accepted or not, probably not knowing that it’s the first offer. And the striker, we’re still in talks with a club about another striker.”
The fact that the bid for the midfielder is the first one the club have made would rule out Doncaster’s James Coppinger, who was the subject of a £300,000 offer earlier in the summer.
Jewell, who confirmed that both bids are for players currently with clubs rather than out of contract, neither confirmed nor denied yesterday’s links with Watford frontman Marvin Sordell: "There’s all sorts going on, isn’t there? We’re linked with all sorts of players, all different types of names.
"I’m not going to comment on speculation, we are in for people, we’ve made offers for people and we’d rather keep that quiet.”
Sordell himself appeared to dismiss the story on Twitter: "Just paper talk as far as I'm concerned. I'm not going to Ipswich."
With recent signing Ãvar Ingimarsson out with a thigh strain, Damien Delaney and Tommy Smith played the full 90 minutes of yesterday’s 2-0 friendly win at FC Eindhoven. Jewell says this is far from ideal and he continues to look for a fourth, presumably right-sided, centre-half: "We need another on in there, there’s no doubt about that.
"They’re all good players but we can’t afford to go into the season without another centre-half that can push on to try to get into the team.”
The Blues boss says that despite the signing of Michael Chopra his squad still needs further quicker additions: "We’re looking for all sorts of players, we’ve added experience and I think we need a bit of pace in the team, but [Championship clubs] are all chasing the same players.”
Jewell is aware of claims of renewed interest in striker Jason Scotland from Swansea but says there is nothing concrete at this stage: "There have been rumours but I don’t think we’ve had any contact from Swansea.”
The Liverpudlian says Town have received no other bids: "No, unfortunately! We haven’t had any offers and we’re not encouraging any offers. We’re more interested in bringing players in rather than selling players.”
Damien Delaney has described Jewell’s pre-season preparations as the toughest he has known and Jewell says that this is vital for the long campaign ahead: "He couldn’t have done too many hard ones!
"The players are in good shape but there’s a great saying which our coach Sean McCarthy came up with, which isn’t like him, which goes along the lines of ‘hard work is never easy and easy work is hard to get’. Someone’s obviously told him that, he wouldn’t think of that himself!”
Town's first team are next in action at Den Bosch on Thursday (KO 7pm local time), while a Blues XI are taking on Haverhill Rovers away this evening (KO 7.30pm) with the likes of Shane O'Connor, Ronan Murray and Joe Whight probably involved.