Clegg: Same Targets Still in Mind
Friday, 4th Jun 2010 09:33

Chief executive Simon Clegg says Town are still targeting the players who were in manager Roy Keane’s thoughts at the end of the season. The Blues are also continuing to look for destinations for the current squad members who are no longer in Keane's plans.

Clegg said: “The manager and myself still have the same four or five players in mind that we had at the end of last season.

“They have not gone off the radar. And we recognise that we need to improve when it comes to putting the ball into the net.

“The bottom line is that we had more efforts on goal than any other team in the Championship and the lowest conversion rate. This says all there is to say about our strikers last season."

Cardiff striker Michael Chopra is Roy Keane's first choice to end the club's goalscoring problems with a bid understood to be in the region of £3.5 million having been tabled for the ex-Sunderland man.

Peterborough's George Boyd and Tottenham youngster Andros Townsend are players on Keane's wish-list for the left midfield role, while out of contract Crystal Palace skipper Shaun Derry has been targeted for central midfield, but appears likely to join QPR.

Southampton midfielder Simon Gillett, also out of contract, is another player in Keane's thoughts, probably as a potential replacement for departed loanee Jack Colback, along with Hungarian keeper Marton Fulop from the Blues' boss's old club Sunderland.

Much-sought-after former loanee Daryl Murphy is also amongst the targets with Glasgow Rangers the latest side to be linked with 27-year-old frontman, while Celtic, Reading and Burnley have all previously been mentioned in connection with the Irish international striker.

Clegg says Town owner and chairman Marcus Evans wants some of the players who are surplus to requirements to leave before new additions can come in: “The owner is putting me under pressure to get players out before we can bring players in and although it is all quiet at the moment, once clubs are back in action again players will start moving and there will be a snowball effect. I’m confident I can do as the owner wants.”

The likes of Colin Healy, Alan Quinn, Kevin Lisbie, Owen Garvan, Jon Stead, Pablo Couñago and Alex Bruce are amongst those the Blues will probably be looking to offload, with Bruce’s loan club Leicester already expressing an interest in the Irish international, Stead perhaps returning to his loan side Coventry and Sheffield Wednesday having been eyeing Pablo Couñago. Lisbie is understood to be interesting Millwall, Charlton and Colchester, where he spent this season on loan and from whom he joined the Blues in 2008.

The chief executive has also confirmed that the Blues had agreed terms for Liam Trotter’s permanent move to Millwall when the midfielder joined them on loan, a deal which Clegg says is beyond what Town would have received in compensation for the 21-year-old. A sell-on clause was also included in the deal for the Ipswich-born player, who agreed a two-year contract with the Lions earlier in the week.

Elsewhere, ex-Town midfielder or full-back Gavin Johnson has hung up his boots at the age of 39. Johnson has most recently been playing football with his local side Bury Town.

Photo: Action Images

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mickeyjb added 10:04 - Jun 4 Ok so there's the targets. How many will we get, And when?
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Legend added 10:05 - Jun 4 Well stop keep talkng about these so called targets and bring them in!!! I expect these targets to be in a Ipswich shirt by the first week in July ready to join the lads for pre season. No more faffing about please, Go get them!!!!
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devontractorboy added 10:06 - Jun 4 All talk and no trousers as me Ma used to say....get on with the signings, think we'll regret Garvan & Pablo going though!
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wazza added 10:09 - Jun 4 As it says in the artical it stale mate until we get some players out no more will come in !!! surely we all knew who Keane was not wanting at the end of last season so why were we not pushing hard before clubs went away to get rid of those player early
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fredbarber added 10:13 - Jun 4 sylvan ebanks-blake please on a season long loan!
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PimsNumber1 added 10:17 - Jun 4 good point wazza. problem is they probably are not good enough for rivals or wont take a drop in wages to go to league 1 teams.
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welshtractorboy added 10:37 - Jun 4 fredbarber ----good shout---did mention this on message board somtime ago. Wolves have now got Fletcher from Burnely,no better time to make the loan bid,proven at this level. If Murphy wanted to join us,he would have already signed. forget him. Its clear we DO need 4-5 players and yes we DO need these by the time we start pre season. Ekbanks + Wicham = goals
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StowTractorBoy added 10:37 - Jun 4

Chopra or Hooper up front please not Murphy at any price. If we are looking for goals Ambrose on the left of midfield. He is fit now unlike the last loan period with us when he had not played games. Bradley Orr at right back is a decent player and a possibility for us. Agree all the names listed by TWTD to offload should be including Garvan - he has had too many chances and not come up to the plate. As with many others concerned at the non activity especially when Keane told us he wanted his squad settled before pre season training. That looks unlikely now.

Surco72 added 11:38 - Jun 4

Chopra would be a good signing to play alongside Wickham or Stead , Stead should be kept rather than spend on Murphy who scored less goals in the championship in more starts than Stead last season .
Derry is not needed and Gillett is a lower league player who could not get in the Saints side again not needed .
As for getting rid of Garvan that is riduculous 14 starts 5 assists and 1 goal last season ,just as a comparison to Leadbitter 36 starts 8 assists and 3 goals from someone who took all the corners and free kicks and a penalty.He has the ability and is still only very young ,and to those who say what about the west Brom game what about the two Cardiff games or Qpr game ,Leadbitter and Norris do not work on their own together in the midfield as half of the season showed.
I think we are in a worse position than this time last year where we had won the last three league games and were on a high and needed a few additions we ended this with no win in four on a low loads of players leaving not all bad Wright x2 ,Garvan,Stead ,we now need a right back ,left back ,left midfield ,creative midfielder and two strikers ,worrying times as the majority of the names listed above are no better than what we are releasing

Seasonticketsteve added 11:44 - Jun 4

I think who ever we sign will come out the blue and catch us all by surprise and it will be someone no one has mentioned.

Some Arsenal youngsters would be nice, Jay Simpson would be a nice addition up front. Maybe a lower league signing or two as well-beevers or Spurr at Sheff Wed would be a good shout. As for our troublesome left side I think its most likely to be a loan deal as with hopefully the returning Civelli later in the season it would be money better spent else where at the moment.

Sounds like there could be quite a few outgoings-Bruce, Lisbie, Garvan, Counago, Stead, Priskin, Martin-could generate £1-2 million from sales which I am sure could re invested in the squad and would free up wages no end.

Heres to another busy summer! Well once the 1st of July comes around anyway.

Help added 13:27 - Jun 4 Well lets try harder to get them out of mind and into the squad.
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WeWereZombies added 14:40 - Jun 4 All credit to Gavin Johnson for keeping playing as long as he could - a valuable stabilising influence in the early part of the Burley years and had the good sense to move on when the quality of the squad was upped and his chances were more limited.
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jas0999 added 17:21 - Jun 4 Interesting that we need to off-load first, but thanks to Jim and his big contracts to mates, it may prove very difficult moving some of these players on.
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Wickets added 17:36 - Jun 4 Amazing 1 year on and its still Jims fault!!
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Blandford added 17:43 - Jun 4

It worries me a lot that we need to off-load our failures before we can invest in the improvements the squad desperately needs. I can't see us getting rid of our overpaid and under-performing players too quickly which means that the targets that our chief executive has been aware of for over a month are still no nearer to becoming signings. One of the many problems at the start of last season was that RK had not seen enough of the new signings in pre-season to know his best side - the way things are going he is going to have the same problem in August - that is if we manage to sign anyone at all.