Blues boss Paul Jewell has admitted that he’s had a thoroughly frustrating time in the transfer market this summer. Despite adding four players to his squad and having another bid provisionally accepted by a Premier League club, the Town manager says “everything that could have gone wrong in the transfer market has gone wrong” as he has sought to strengthen ahead of a 2012/13 season which starts with tonight’s Capital One Cup tie at home to Bristol Rovers (KO 7.45pm).
Jewell said: "There’s not as many [new] faces as we would have liked, that’s for sure. Elliott Hewitt’s only 18 and he’s not going to be fit until September, but we knew that when we signed him.
"Massimo Luongo hasn’t made his league debut yet, but we’ve got high hopes for the two of them and we’re really pleased to get Luke Chambers and Scott Loach.
"We’re not unhappy with the players we’ve brought in, what I am unhappy with is the lack of players that we’ve brought in to add to the squad.”
He says deals have broken down when he thought they were close to being confirmed: "We’ve had players here, we’ve agreed terms, medicals have been passed, then at the last minute something’s happened at the other end.
"Last week, a player from a Premier League team, everything was agreed for him to come for a year’s loan and then someone got injured at his place and we’ll have to wait until August 31st. It’s been one continuous knockback for different reasons this season.
"I don’t want to go into particular cases because that’s not right and proper, but everything that could have gone wrong in the transfer market has gone wrong so far. We’re due a bit of luck soon.
"It’s been frustrating because a lot of time and effort from a lot of people has gone into these [deals].”
Those abortive signings have broken down for various reasons: "One was an injury to a player, the other one was a change of heart at the last minute by a manager and there have been one or two others where we couldn’t afford them - we’d agreed with the football clubs to bring them in at a price but the players haven’t been able to agree terms.
"We only want players to come to Ipswich who really want to come to Ipswich for three or four years, not just for the short-term or for a pay day.
"We want players who are committed to the future of Ipswich. If we’ve got the impression that they are only coming for the money, we quickly decided to pull the plug on one or two.
"We’ve also spoken to clubs about players and we haven’t been able to agree fees,” he added. "That’s another reason why transfers haven’t happened. We won’t be the only club where that’s happened this close season. Whether those things can get reignited, I don’t know.
"What I do know, and what I’ll tell the supporters, is that the squad is light and it’s very young and we need to improve it.”
He says one potential deal is currently ongoing: "We have got a bid in for one player — and it has been accepted - but that is dependent on the Premier League team involved getting a replacement in. I don’t want to be vague but that’s exactly the situation.”
Jewell is unsure whether the squad will be improved before Saturday’s Championship opener at home to Blackburn: "I said I was 100% certain after the Southend game because I was, then the day after I thought we had a player tied up — everything was done, the player had agreed to come, then an injury at his club prevented that. I know we’re three players short of where I want to be, at least.
"At times in pre-season we’ve looked a little bit sluggish but in the last couple of games we’ve looked really good in the first half when we’ve kept that team together. Then when we’ve made changes, we’ve not got quite the strength in depth that’s needed.”
He says adding players from Premier League teams may be a simpler matter towards the end of the month: "I think it’ll be easier to get them in as the window closes or after the window closes because that’s what Premier League teams do. With this transfer window Premier League teams don’t want to let their players go until they know they’ve got replacements in.
"Once August 31st comes, whereas we can trade in the loan market, Premier League teams can’t and it makes the transfer market very frustrating and very difficult.
"That’s what we’re finding. We find it every year, but this year more than others. Also, I think it’s more important that we have to be more selective in the players [we sign] because we’ve got a long-term project here and I think people can see that we’re definitely going down the route of younger players.
"We want to bring one or two experienced players in and, of course, that’s important, but if you take Carlos Edwards out of the starting XI from the last two games [we’re a very young side] — our midfield four’s average age is about 19.
"We are building for the future and we want to continue on that route, but we also want to add one or two experienced players to the group to help that along.”