Manager Roy Keane has admitted that Town have failed to land his two of his main summer targets, despite the players being keen to join the club. The Blues boss says that he may have to rely on last year’s squad, which finished 15th in the Championship, to make a promotion challenge during 2010/11.

One of the players involved is almost certainly former Crystal Palace skipper Shaun Derry, who instead opted to join QPR, where bigger wages were probably on offer, while Cardiff striker Michael Chopra has also been amongst the players interesting the Blues.

Keane, who started pre-season training with his squad this morning, admits he is frustrated at so far having been unable to make signings: “I've spoken to two players that were keen to come here, but we couldn’t do the deals. My job is to identify the players and speak to them, which I have done, but we never managed to get the deals done.

“So, we’re disappointed, but I’m looking forward to working with the players we had last year and we just get on with it.

“All I can do is identify players I think will improve [the squad] and it’s up to the club to try and do the deals and we’ve not managed to do that. It’s frustrating and disappointing, but that’s the way it is.”

Keane says he feels no anger about the moves falling through being well aware of all the potential difficulties when signing players: “When any deal you’re involved in doesn’t work out, you’re going to be frustrated. Not angry, because you can never relax when you’re trying to negotiate with players or agents or clubs. You know that there are going to be pitfalls on the way.

“As I said, we were hopeful on one or two players who would have been very good for us. That they wanted to come to the club was a big plus for me, but the fact that these deals didn’t get done would lead to frustration, but certainly not anger because I’ve been in football long enough and know it takes a lot for these deals to get done.”

The former Ireland skipper says there may be a chance of reviving certain deals: “We hope so, but I have to look at my role in it, which is to identify the players, speak to them to try and persuade them to come to the club. I then step back and the club do the deals and we’ve not managed to do that.

“People will look at me when we don’t get results, and with the people I work with we’ve got to try and get these players in, but we have decent numbers in terms of the squad we have and we just get on with it.

“I think every manager when he comes back pre-season would like one or two new faces, but it’s not happened and, having said that, the players we brought in last year we hope will have a better start to the season than they did last year. We’ll have more of a settled squad now, so in a strange way it might help us a little bit.”

Photo: Action Images

kentblue added 20:59 - Jun 28 Agree with the above comment . The man is aloof - rants and moans - inspirational he is NOT ! The sooner he GOES the better for all ( apart from those who for some reason known to themselves want him to stay ?? )
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bluearmy4life added 21:32 - Jun 28 I have to agree kentblue its only a matter of time. Roy keane talks a great game but is failing to deliver at Ipswich all talk and too much bulll shat!
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north_stand77 added 21:45 - Jun 28 Trigsy - At last, someone who has similar thoughts to myself! I have said several times here that supporters need to get behind the Players. As you say, they pick up on negativity and it must affect them when the crowd are booing and being negative. Surely all posters on here really want the team to do well. Whatever your thoughts on Roy Keane, Simon Clegg, Marcus Evans or any else at ITFC , cast them aside and just think about the Boys. Its not their doing, what goes on behind the scenes. Hopefully they all want to play for US and we should be getting behind THEM. We have no say in what decisions are made at the Club so what will be, will be. Stop bickering and be positive. The season hasnt even started yet!!

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dirtydingusmagee added 22:06 - Jun 28 he offloads players then finds he cant sign players , but come on everyone lets be positive !yer right.
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runaround added 22:17 - Jun 28 Very interesting statement from Keane, leading to much speculation and fear. I have always been behind him until now but I just cannot see him being succesful here now. If what he says is true that the 2 players were keen to play for ITFC but deals could not be done, it does seem to suggest that their wage demands were too high and quite rightly the wage structure of the club must not be broken as it destabalises the whole team as we found to our cost 9 years ago. My hope is that he can get some players in either permanently or loanees as I just cannot see last seasons squad doing any better than midtable, especially as a few of them are deemed surplus to requirements by RK and we are seriously lacking in certain areas. The next 3 months are vital for Keane now, get it wrong and he will be sacked. If M.E had doubts he should have sacked him in May, getting rid now would destabalise things ever more. I hope Keane turns it around but I just cannot see it happening now and have nagging concerns that the team will be in tatters when season starts leading to as bad or worse start than last year. I really hope i'm wrong

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generalpublic added 01:19 - Jun 29 a good manager would get us up with the players we have ........ oh dear
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blue_floyd added 01:59 - Jun 29 I really fear for us next season. Naarwich have already signed 5 players, including Andrew Surman, who would've been perfect for our left side if Civelli's still not fit, and the Budgies are skint. The problem is clearly the fact that we're not prepared to pay the wages that these players are after. You have to speculate to accumulate, like we did when we signed Marcus Stewart. If we won't break the wage structure to accommodate quality players, then of course they won't sign for us.

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jas0999 added 09:31 - Jun 29 Oh dear - yet again the negative comments directed at Roy. At least if you are going to moan, read the article and research first. Roy has said that he has IDENTIFIED targets, SPOKEN to the players, who WANT to join us. Then it is up to Clegg and ME to do the deals. They haven't. So how on earth is this Roy's fault? All this stupidity of players not wanting to work with him - two targets said they WERE interested in joining us. If you insist on moaning, please direct it to the people who have not done the deals - CLEGG and EVANS!

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jas0999 added 09:37 - Jun 29 p.s. MaySixth - the answer to your questions is none of the above. If you had bothered to read the article, you will have noted that your question is flawed. The players WERE KEEN to join Ipswich - but those above RK were unable to do the deal.
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paulnstar added 19:03 - Jul 1 just cant see Marcus Evans backing keane now ,disasterous signings since taking over ,he is an astute businessman would any of u let roy keane spend ur money No sack him now before he ruins it for next manager
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