Jewell: Youthful Squad Signals Bright Future - Ipswich Town News

Blues boss Paul Jewell says Town have a bright future with young players making up much of his first team squad.

Jewell said: "I was looking at our squad and we’ve got 24 pros and something like nine of them are under 21. The squad is quite inexperienced, we’ve got a couple of 30-somethings and everyone else is at decent ages.

"The likes of Jack and Ronan Murray, Luke, Massimo, we think they’re all going to be decent players and they are part of our squad. I think the future’s quite bright for Ipswich.

"We can’t just have a whole team of young players but I think these lads are really starting to show, in training, not just in matches, that they belong here.”

Another youngster, 18-year-old Elliott Hewitt, was signed from Macclesfield in the summer and is likely to make his first team bow at some point this month having returned to action with the U21 side after his hip impingement operations.

Recent signing Paul Taylor, relatively young himself at 24, came in last month and impressed his manager during his debut against Huddersfield and in training during the international break: "I think there’s a lot more to come from him. It was obviously a big week for him, a big move for him.

"He’s looked really sharp in training and we’re really pleased with him. I think he gives us a different string to our bow. He’s someone who can pick it up and he’s got pace, he’s got hunger and he’s really, really enjoying himself. We’re hoping that he can stay that way and score us plenty of goals.”

The Blues boss is clearly frustrated that Taylor is still to be joined at the club by central defensive reinforcements: "For some reason it feels like the whole world is against us at times. We just think we’re going to make progress on a player and something happens.

"It’s important that we don’t feel sorry for ourselves. There are 42 games left in a very tough competitive league.”

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