Town boss Paul Jewell has told Grant Leadbitter that he wants to know whether the midfielder is going to stay at Portman Road in the early part of this week. Leadbitter, who has been offered new terms by Town having turned down a deal earlier in the season, is out of contract at the end of June and is understood to have been approached by Middlesbrough, while Brighton have also been linked.
Jewell says he held talks with the August 2009 £2.65 million signing from Sunderland at the end of the week: "I spoke to him on Friday morning and told him we need an answer asap and outlined to him the plans that I have, and hopefully he’ll want to be part of that.
"He says he likes Ipswich and he’d like to stay, so obviously we’ve got to work out the package he needs. We need to know in the next 48 hours. I’m hopeful. Fingers crossed he likes what we’re trying to do here and he wants to be part of it.”
Pressed on the 48-hour time limit the Blues manager said it might not be quite that strict but he wants the situation clear soon so both parties can move forward.
Jewell says the conversation wasn’t about money but on how he sees the seasons to come: "I didn’t speak to him about finance, I spoke to him about the plans that I’ve got, hopefully for the long-term. Hopefully he wants to be part of them. He gave me that impression.
"But it’s a big decision for him because I think he gets married in the summer, he’s 26 now. We want to keep him, he wants to stay so hopefully we can get it done.”
He reiterated that there will be news on that and other contract issues after his Tuesday meeting with Marcus Evans, who has been on holiday in the Bahamas: "That will all be resolved on Tuesday. Marcus has been away for three weeks but we’ve been speaking constantly. We’ll sit down face to face and go through next year.”
Jewell says he works well with Evans: "He’s part of what we’re trying to do, he’s been a terrific foil for me and hopefully in the long-term I’ll be able to reward him.”
On Saturday’s draw at Crystal Palace, the Blues manager had praise for goalscorer Jason Scotland’s performances at Selhurst Park and over the campaign: "He’s been good for us Jason. He’s played a pivotal part, most of it’s been as a cameo but he’s a terrific player, a terrific lad to have around the place and I think he’s had a decent enough season.
"It’s been a bit stop-start, he’s had one or two problems but he’s got himself right and we’re pleased with Jason.”
Jewell, who said he had no new injuries although Daryl Murphy was holding his hamstring towards the end, was also pleased with Aaron Cresswell’s display: "I thought Cressy was excellent against Wilfried Zaha, it was a good test for him and it shows how far he’s come from when he first got here, I thought he was terrific.”
Regarding the season as a whole, he says that while the middle of the table isn’t where he wants to be, he’s relieved to be away from the relegation zone: "No one’s ever happy to finish mid-table but if you’d said in January we’d have had a mid-table finish we’d have bitten your hand off.”
Palace boss Dougie Freedman believes he Blues have made progress since his side won 1-0 at Portman Road in October: "I thought Ipswich were very good in the middle of the park and Paul Jewell’s certainly turned them around from when we played them at the beginning of the season because I felt that we had a comfortable win up there. But we found it very hard and cagey in that midfield.”
Meanwhile, Tuesday’s opponents Birmingham may recall keeper Jack Butland from his loan at Cheltenham with first-choice Boaz Myhill sustaining a suspected sprained thumb in the warm-up ahead of Saturday’s 2-2 home draw with Bristol City. Irish international Colin Doyle looks likely to start against the Blues at Portman Road.
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