Town boss Paul Jewell has revealed that he held talks with one of his two Portsmouth targets on Sunday. TWTD understands that the player was versatile defender or midfielder Joel Ward, who was previously one of the three Pompey players the Blues tried to sign in January.
The Town manager says the weekend discussions went well but that the clubs are yet to do a deal — which would be an initial loan formalised into a permanent switch in the summer - with other sides also in the hunt as Thursday’s 5pm loan deadline nears: "I met one of them on Sunday and had a chat. We got permission from Portsmouth and that’s where it is.
"Whether that’s going to happen, I honestly don’t know. You can ask me who it is, but I’m not going to tell you.
"We chatted for a couple of hours and the rest of it is obviously up to the football clubs - the chief executive here and the administrator at Portsmouth.
"If it happens, great, if not, we move on. I think he was keen to come here, but I don’t think the player is short of offers either.”
Ward, who stands 6ft 2in tall, was in Portsmouth’s midfield last night as they beat Birmingham 4-1 at Fratton Park.
The 22-year-old, for whom the Blues agreed a fee with Portsmouth on the final day of the transfer window before the move broke down over personal terms, was believed to have spoken with Town a fortnight ago, crisis-mired Pompey having contacted clubs to inform them which players are available as they look to raise cash.
In January, a fee was also agreed for Portsmouth keeper Stephen Henderson, who has subsequently joined West Ham, while the Blues and others had offers for central defender Jason Pearce rebuffed.
Pearce, 24 remains a target of Town — and reportedly the Hammers and Southampton — but we understand no move is likely before Thursday’s deadline.
Jewell says any players who come in before the deadline will be signings for the long term: "If we bring somebody in it will be a loan with a view to being here next year and beyond.
"We’re more interested in building for the future rather than short-term stuff at the moment. I don’t want to get carried away or blasé about it, but at one stage it was looking as if we were in a relegation fight and if we were still down there three or four points off the bottom three, we might have to make some short-term decisions.
"We don’t want to relax, but hopefully we’ve got enough points and we don’t want to spend money when it’s not really vital to us going up or going down.”
However, he says that aside from players at clubs in perilous states like Pompey, long-term signings tend not to become available at this point in the season with most teams having something to play for between now and May: "There aren’t too many teams who are sat mid-table and cruising, are there?
"We want to try and make sure our network is in place when the season ends. I want to get to the situation where we’re tweaking the squad every year rather than overhauling it.
"There seems to have been a constant procession of players coming in and going out since I’ve been here and we want to just calm that down a little bit, bring in quality and tweak here and there. But to get to that stage we’ve got a lot of progress to make.”
Jewell, speaking at yesterday's press conference, said he and his staff are spending much of their time watching potential targets, the manager himself having taken in the League One game between Chesterfield and Huddersfield last night: "We’re aware that we need to improve in a lot of areas and if you look at our scouting list and where we’re all going [on Tuesday night], you’ll realise we’re looking to improve the squad for next season and beyond.
"We’re out most nights looking at games and that’s why I’ve got to get away from here soon as I’ve got a long journey ahead of me.”
With loan keeper Alex McCarthy set to return to Reading on April 11th, the Town manager had considered looking for another glovesman as cover but is happy to stick with his existing options for the remaining weeks of the campaign: "We’ve got Richard Wright and Arran Lee-Barrett here.
"It’s something that we’ve looked at, but hopefully things are going to be OK in terms of not looking over our shoulders. I don’t want to take our foot off the gas but everything we do now will be towards next season.”
US U20 keeper Cody Cropper, 19, was back in full training last week after undergoing knee surgery before Christmas and will be Town’s third choice number one until the summer.
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