Boss Paul Jewell says Town still have a chance of keeping Keith Andrews at Portman Road beyond January, despite the Premier League interest in the midfielder. Jewell spoke to the 31-year-old at training yesterday in the wake of the Irishman’s claims that the Blues weren’t doing enough to show they wanted to keep him.
Jewell says Andrews always viewed his switch to Portman Road as a longer-term thing, preferring to be part of a developing team in the Championship rather than in a side constantly battling against relegation from the Premier League: "When I first brought him here in August we had a long chat and he said that he wants to be a club which is moving forward, that’s got ambition, that wants to go forward rather than just being part of a relegation scrap in the Premier League.
"It’s hard for players being part of that relegation scrap at times. Although they’re playing at a higher level, it’s almost no fun. You’re going into games knowing that you’re hardly going to touch the ball. They were his words, not mine.
"Even though there might be some Premier League clubs in for him, if they’re not Premier League clubs in the top half, I think we’ve got a chance to compete.
"We haven’t got a chance to compete against them in terms of money, but Keith’s not all about money, he’s about the future, which is what gives me hope that we might be able to sign him.”
Jewell admits that perhaps he should have spoken in greater depth with the 31-year-old regarding his future but says his concerns were elsewhere during the recent poor run of form: "I said to Keith [on Thursday] morning that we’d lost seven on the bounce and I was wondering whether I was going to be here, never mind Keith Andrews.
"I’ve got a terrific relationship with Keith, we’re both quite strong-minded people and I said to him that maybe I should have had a chat with him, but it’s come to a head now.
"He knows that I want to keep him, he knows the club want to keep him, it’s just whether the agent and the club can come to an agreement and whether Blackburn agree to it. There are going to be other clubs in for him, so there are a lot of factors.”
If Andrews does move on to the Premier League, the Blues boss says he has no issue with a player looking to play at a higher level: "I said to Keith I’ve no problem with people doing the best for themselves.
"When I came in last year I said that I didn’t want to go through all the contractual stuff like we did with Damien Delaney, Gareth McAuley and David Norris again, but it’s probably even worse this year.
"It’s going to be difficult for me to manage that, but that’s part of the skill of managing. There’s more to it than just doing it on the training pitch.
"I’ll never have a problem with players trying to better themselves or trying to get the best deals for their families but I also want the best deal for Ipswich.
"I’d like to keep Keith and I’d like to keep Danny Collins, but they’re Premier League players who are on Premier League money, so it’s difficult to try get the deals done.
"We’d love to keep Keith and we’d love sign Danny, but whether we can is down to a lot of things - the clubs they’re at, the fact that they’ve both got a year left on their contracts, the players themselves, us and the agents. There are a lot of factors which come into it. I do think the players know that we want to keep them, which is a good start.”
Jewell says Andrews has told him he wants to remain with the Blues and says his performances, which have so far yielded nine goals, have illustrated that: "Every player says they’d like to stay but I think Keith has come in and I think he’s shown his commitment, that he wants to stay.
"He’s a strong character and he intimated to me when he first came that he wants to be here long term and we’d like that.
"But at the end of the day what we’d like and what happens are two different things. It’s not as if his contract is up in the summer, he’s got another year to go at Blackburn and Danny has another year to go at Stoke on Premier League wages, so it’s not as easy as people might think.”
As for Collins, who returned to Stoke at the end of his loan on Monday, the Town manager says he’ll be talking to Potters boss Tony Pulis once he has spoken with the Welsh international’s agent: "I was going to ring Tony this morning but I’ll probably wait until tomorrow. I think I probably need to speak with Danny’s agent to see what Danny wants to do.
"He’s a bit similar to Keith. He’s put himself in the shop window a little bit after being out of the picture at Stoke.
"His wife’s had a baby while he’s been here, so it’s been a bit difficult. Logistically and geographically it might be more difficult but we’re hoping that we can still do something there.”