Blues boss Paul Jewell says he’ll be sitting down with striker Jason Scotland to discuss the Trinidadian’s future at Portman Road. The Town manager reiterated that he wants to keep both Scotland and midfielder Grant Leadbitter at the club beyond the end of the season.
Jewell says he has been really impressed with Scotland since he came to the club: "He’s been terrific. He’s done really well, Jason. He’s a brilliant lad to have around the place - he’s loud, he’s positive and he’s a good player.
"We’ll be trying to sit down with Jason and maybe get a deal for next season. Everyone knows he’s got a clause in his contract [which means two more league starts trigger another year on his current wages] and I’ve spoken with him at length about that. We’ve got to sit down and see what we’re going to do for both parties.”
The Town manager was reluctant to say too much more at this early stage: "I’ve spoken with him at length and I’m not ducking the issue but it’s not really right for me to discuss it [at the moment].
"Jason’s a sensible lad, he’s a good lad, he knows we’d like to keep him and he’s quite happy to hear what we’ve got to say, and vice versa.
"It’s a situation which will hopefully be resolved quickly, but from our point of view we want to keep him.”
Despite the clause, Jewell says he’d have no qualms about starting the 33-year-old if he needed to: "I would without a doubt. We don’t really want to get into the situation which has happened at other clubs where you don’t want to play people because it’s an expensive deal for next year. If I think he should play, he’ll play.”
The likes of Scotland and Leadbitter are likely to have to take pay cuts when negotiating new contracts with the Financial Fair Play rules which come in next season limiting the cash available to clubs.
Jewell backs the move, citing the situations at Portsmouth, Rangers and Port Vale, all of whom are currently in administration: "The most important thing is that you can’t live beyond your means because it will eventually catch up with you, and what we’ve seen happen with the teams we’ve mentioned has got to be a lesson to us all.
"I want to sign Grant Leadbitter and I want to sign Jason Scotland,” he continued. "But whether we can do a deal which will satisfy them financially is out of our hands, it’s up to them. It’s up to [them] to say ‘We’d like to stay or the wages aren’t good enough’.
"That’s fine, I’ve no problem with that, that’s people’s prerogative but I’m telling the supporters that we want to keep them.”
Beyond that, the players have got to be dedicated to the cause: "It will also depend on what club they want to go to. This is a terrific football club and we want people to want to be here.
"If players don’t want to be here or managers don’t want to be here or coaches, they’re better off moving because we want people who are 100% committed to Ipswich Town and trying to get us to the next level.
"If people are committed and they can agree a deal, whatever that deal is, then fantastic. If they can’t, then let’s get someone who can and move on. I never have a problem with players’ contracts because it’s a two-way thing. "
Jewell says that 2011/12 has been such a hectic campaign with so many ups and downs on and off the field that it’s been difficult to find the right moment for contract discussions: "It’s been such a difficult season, there’s never seemed to be a good time to sit down and talk to the players because we were either in the top six or we’ve been in the bottom echelons. There’s never been a time where everything’s calmed down.
"As soon as things seemed to calm down, something’s happened off the pitch. It’s been like 10 seasons in one season.”