Boss Paul Jewell says the Blues are “in there fighting” to bring former loanee Jimmy Bullard back to Portman Road having spoken to his agent on Friday. The Town manager continues his search for new players with centre-halves remaining top of his list.
Jewell, who talked to Bullard himself on Thursday, said: "I spoke to Jimmy’s agent [on Friday] and he told me that there are two Premier League teams in for him and another Championship team. He’s officially free on Monday and we are in there fighting.
"We do need a couple of centre-halves like you can’t believe. Not just a couple of centre-halves as well.
"I was sitting there in pre-season thinking we were a couple of centre-halves away from being all right. But now I think we’re a couple of centre-halves and a couple of other positions away from just being all right. I’ve said before there’s a lot of work to do and that view has only been enhanced by [Saturday].”
Bullard, whose contract is set to be terminated by Hull City, has been mentioned in connection with QPR, although that potential switch appears to have broken down, Wigan, West Ham, Bolton and now Wolves in addition to the Blues.
The Blues’ boss says his failure to land central defenders this summer is not down to a lack of effort: "I wish I could bring some of you in and get you to sit in my office and drive in my car and see the amount of time that I’m on the phone trying to bring in players. Even [Saturday] morning I was speaking to a club about a player.
"It’s the most frustrating time of my managerial career as far as trying to get players in goes. We need to do it and we need to do it quickly.”
Jewell says his remaining players were on a hiding to nothing in the second half: "No disrespect, everyone can play when they’re 6-1 up and against nine men. I’m looking at when it was 1-1 or when we were 1-0 down or even when we were 1-0 up. You’ve got to get together.
"The second half was nine against 11, that was tough. It was the 12 minutes before that which cost us the game. We were winning 1-0, we were doing OK and then 1-1 and you think 'let’s just try and [keep it tight]'.”
The Town manager was again left shaking his head at his side’s defending: "The goals we give away, you can’t legislate for them, can you? But how many times have I said that, and I guess Roy said that and Jim said it too.
"When we go over the white line, everyone’s got instructions, but when they cross the white line some people decide to make decisions we haven’t been talking about all week and it costs us. Whenever we come under pressure we collapse.
"Every time there was a 50/50 we got brushed off of it. The seventh goal just summed us up — he went through three tackles. There’s an awful lot of work to do, not just defensively but all over the pitch.”
Jewell is determined to turn things around: "Ultimately it comes down to me and I’ve got to make sure I can get the right players in here who can take this great club where we want to be.
"We’re a long way from there. I think people realise that. But there won’t be any lack of fighting and trying by me.”
Jewell was at Upton Park yesterday to watch Saturday's opponents Leeds draw 2-2 with West Ham.