Oly Clegg has to be held accountable for the clubs position in the table - unfortunately for us he's ME's blue eyed boy - not for waht he can do for ITFC direct, but what he can do for the ME empire. Oly will be a has been post 2012 anyway

no, im not, however I do run a fairly substantial business myself, and this situation just says to me that we have a financial structure similar to any other of ME's businesses or most businesses with 8 figure plus turnover. We have caps on total contract values, and caps on salaries.

As a fan i would love us to go over that structure to get in some people, but as a business minded person, im glad we dont. These deals have taken us down before, and could well do again.

Regarding SC, for me the jury is still out, but in actual fact i think this is more ME's doing than SC's regarding the financial structure. you dont amass a fortune as he has by being spendthrift.

The reason the jury is out on SC, im not sure he has the personality or passion to do what a Sheepie or someone with football passion could do in the same role.....

A real shame- i think this one may haunt us a bit- the kid seems to score goals wherever he goes, any level, and for my money that is down to belief and attitude once you reach a certain amount of physical capability and attributes.

He is different to Rhodes- more confident. I was sad to see Rhodes leave the club as had an eye on him for a couple of seasons before he got to the fringe of the first team, but at the time Wickham was unknown. They are different types of player and it would have been great to keep both, but the decision was made to keep Wickham and it may well prove correct.

I suspect Austin will do very well wherever he goes and think it is a shame we can't get him- i share some of the concerns about signing younger players rather than loanees and the price of tickets for home games. The truth is that as a fan i place my faith in the board and owner as they have kept us looking forward and saved us from being the selling club we were into a club with concerns about lesser things than our very survival.

Shame about Charlie but good luck to him- no panic buys/loans please, let's just all get our feet back on the ground and notch the few wins we need to be secure this season and instill some heart and belief for next season. Mid-table and playing decent football and hopefully we will be more appealing to younger players over the summer.

Right type of player- similar targets would be welcome, 5 year plan please.

COYB

If we weren't paying Clegg we'd have money to pay players and bring them in. Can't close deals with new players or current players

but who would you rather? "lets be avin you" Delia or Clueless Clegg?

So that's Austin not coming, so lets get Norris and Mcauley's contracts sorted out.

I must say this doesn't look very good. Of course, we don't know the ramifications of the deal (after all, we are only the ignorant paying public) but if we get in a great manager and then don't give him the tools to work with, it begins to look very much like lack of ambition. If it happens once, then there may be particular circumstances that explain a failure to sign, but if it happens regularly, you have to ask whether the ignorant public maybe has a point after all. Perhaps some self-evaluation is also required on the part of the people at the club responsible for getting these deals done? Isn't business always a somewhat "dirty" affair? I don't believe the priorities at stake in the Austin case were about being squeaky clean. In plain words: surely something could have been worked out! Rather disappointed today, but more worryingly, not at all surprised.

haha class that all Ipswich fans on here after the Arsenal match were so proud to be a supporter but now we dont sign a Swindon striker they seem to hate being a Ipswich supporter...

CLEGG..... I AND ALL TOWN FANS DEMAND AN EXPLINATION...... NOW!!

For everyone moaning, we don't know what his demands were, and it's not our money that would be paying his wages. No matter how much we love the club, and how much we spend on doing so, it's not our money!

Sacking Keane has seen a tremendous lift in team spirit and confidence re-emerging. It has also lifted the majority of the fans, me included.
We have good players here already. We now have some creativity in the team.
If some people are "hurt" than its because of all the hype that has been built up over the past few days.
Wickham is fit and looking impressive, O'Connor is back and looking eager too. Its not the end of the world....
Rather than focus on Austin, lets back Bullard and the team to start climbing the league.

Even though I categorically don't know what is going on behind the scenes and I am oblivious to the the financial details involved and I haven't actually seen this lad play and I am not professionally linked to football in any way, I still feel that I want to share my half-baked, myopic and ill-informed opinions with hundreds of other similarly-placed people.

Oh, hang on a minute - dozens of other similar folk have beaten me to it...

;0)

Yay for talking absolute boll***s about stuff we know little/nothing about!!!

Isn't the internet a wonderful thing? Epic LOL...

Disappointing if true - but hardly surprising. We've been outbid by a team with parachute money. They can afford to sign bigger cheques for longer.

We can pay more for Bullard cos it's only a loan.

As soon as I saw Burnley (managed by Howe) were one of the other clubs I suspected he might go there. To be honest, I'm surprised he journeyed to Ipswich unless a Burnley offer hadn't been accepted at that time. Better the devil you know and they have a chance of promotion this year as well as, presumably, a more generous current wage structure for him.

As soon as I saw Burnley (managed by Howe) were one of the other clubs I suspected he might go there. To be honest, I'm surprised he journeyed to Ipswich unless a Burnley offer hadn't been accepted at that time. Better the devil you know and they have a chance of promotion this year as well as, presumably, a more generous current wage structure for him.

Ahh its annoying the deal hasnt been done but I have a lot faith in Wickham and Priskin, looks like Scotland will go out on loan so I think PJ will have some more names he would like to bring in, its not all bad its all good, we are still on the up COYB!!

p.s its just annoying having the hope yesterday of signing someone and the reality of today of not, oh well we move on blue army blue army blue army!

Just a thought is the price we are paying for a owner who doesn't want to show his face, leaves it all to clegg

I take your point but with if we do indeed have a strict wage structure, we will continue to miss out on the better players and will never seriously be able to expect to be a Premiership team again which is, after all, Evans' ambition (or pipe dream perhaps?). None of us want a return to the financial woes of the past but I doubt it would have taken bank a busting shift to land our man. Anyway, all highly speculative I suppose as there may well have also been other factors that swayed him towards Burnely.

Perhaps the fantastic scenery and the night-life??

perhaps we will get an explanation of why we didn't sign him from Clegg! or does that stay confidential?...lets move on, what's happening with Andy Drury?

It's all Keane's fault - or it always was before when he was here, now it's Cleggs?

It sounded like it could have been a good signing - but it hasn't happened.

Not a single one of you on here knows any of the facts as to why - so move on!

well said brian_a_mul!

What a differnce 24 hrs makes, this time yesterday we were on the verge of signing Austin, now it looks like he's going to Burnley. Like Greavsie says "its a funny old game!!". I dont know whether Jewell will go for another striker, I think that he saw the oppurtunity to sign a decent prospect but to be honest I don't think that there are any others out there worth signing. If what were hearing is true I would go in for a cheeky bid and try and get Pattison from Burnley!!

Another sorry day for ITFC. The fans of this club deserve some good news!

You have to blame Clegg. There can be no excuse. If this was an isolated incident then fine - but we know from previous experience that Clegg has failed to complete the deals. HE HAS TO GO NOW.

I simply can not accept this is down to Austin being greedy. Burnley are unlikely to be offering excessive terms.

Whatsmore and the real joke is we have paid a reported 20K a week for a ageing, injury prone player who probably isn't match fit. Yet we don't sign a promosing young player who scores goals!

This is a complete disgrace.

We will now see wht Jewell is made of. It's so obvious we need a striker. Hope he has other options!

Totally gutted, thought the longer this dragged on the more chance there would be of us missing out. Clegg's inability so nail the deal will hold us back, he should fall on his sword and admit he cannnot cut the musard as a cheif executive

cheers youth