Town boss Paul Jewell has revealed that skipper Grant Leadbitter has turned down the Blues’ initial contract offer. The 25-year-old's current terms are up at the end of the season with his representatives having held talks with owner Marcus Evans in recent weeks.
Jewell said: "Grant and his advisors sat down with the owner to discuss a new deal and it wasn’t quite what he was looking for. I’ve spoken to Grant and he seems cool with the situation. I’m comfortable with it too.
"I’ve said to all the players that if they play well for us then we might have to pay them more than someone else.
"If we get players that are striving to get a deal then it benefits the team. Grant’s playing as well as he has for us since I’ve been here at the moment so it can work positively for both parties sometimes.”
Leadbitter is one of 18 players whose terms are up either during or at the end of the season. Mark Kennedy, Tommy Smith, Shane O’Connor, Carlos Edwards, Ibrahima Sonko, Ãvar Ingimarsson, Lee Bowyer, Josh Carson, Colin Healy, Luke Hyam, Jason Scotland, Tamás Priskin, Ronan Murray, Cody Cropper and Cormac Burke all have deals which end on June 30th next year, although some of those contracts include options for a further season.
Jack Ainsley and Jamie Griffiths, who is currently on loan at Plymouth, have six-month contracts, which are up at the end of December.
Jewell says he has spoken to some of those whose deals are up in June, who will be able to talk to other clubs regarding contracts for next season from January, and says there’s no panic from either side: "I’m comfortable with the situation. No-one’s knocked on my door and asked to sit down and discuss contracts, but I’m sure that will happen if we continue to play as well as we have done.
"It’s not just the lads in the final year of their contracts that we will talk to, we might also look to extend deals for the likes of young Aaron Cresswell who’s done very well. Things will hopefully be a lot clearer in a couple of months’ time.”
Blues boss Jewell has said on a number of occasions that he doesn’t want a repeat of last season’s Gareth McAuley and David Norris contract saga, while last month Leadbitter told him he wanted to remain at Portman Road.
In August TWTD revealed that Portsmouth had made an offer for the former Sunderland man but at a level well below the Blues’ expectations.
Elsewhere, new loanee Reece Wabara says he'll change his controversial yellow boots if manager Paul Jewell, who made comment on the Manchester City man's footwear after the weekend victory over Brighton, asks him to do so: "I’m happy to change them if he wants me to.
"I’m fully aware of the rivalry [with Norwich] and I’ve had a few tweets about the boots already!”
Meanwhile, many of the Town squad, staff and a number of ex-players are competing at the club's golf day at the Five Lakes Hotel, Golf, Country Club and Spa today.