Assistant boss Chris Hutchings has confirmed the Blues’ interest in Luton midfielder Andy Drury. Town’s targeting of the 27-year-old former Sittingbourne, Lewes and Stevenage man first emerged last weekend.

Hutchings said: “We are interested in him, but we do not have a magic wand and there are a number of obstacles to overcome in every potential signing over personal terms, family considerations etc.”

TWTD understands that Drury was at the club yesterday and the former Stevenage man could well become Paul Jewell’s first permanent Town signing before the transfer window closes on Monday. Drury has a clause in his contract which allows him to move if the Hatters receive a £150,000 offer and the clubs are believed to have been haggling over arrangements regarding payment instalments.

Luton aren't in action today as their scheduled opponents in the Blue Square Bet Premier, Crawley Town, are involved in the FA Cup.

Hutchings explained the situation with the failed move for Charlie Austin: “Swindon Town accepted our bid for Charlie Austin but you cannot enter into an auction and the player decided to sign for Burnley, who also had their bid accepted.

“We have our scouting system operating around the country watching games and we will continue to search for players who we feel will improve the club.”

Paul Jewell’s second in command at Bradford and Wigan says the squad at Town is better than the ones they inherited at the two clubs where they won promotion to the Premier League: “The foundations and the raw materials are already here.

“We had to build teams virtually from scratch at Bradford and Wigan and in the latter case it took us four years to get where we wanted to be.”

Jewell says he and Hutchings made a great team with the Bantams, Latics and in their less successful spell at Derby: “Chris is a terrific coach, he knows how I work and we’ve always worked well together.

“We bounce ideas off one another, he thinks along the same lines as me, he knows me as a person and I have great faith in his coaching ability.

“We will do the coaching together, along with Sean McCarthy. We’re all in the mix and I think the players will enjoy what he tries to get over.”

Photo: ITFC

Photo: Action Images

moomoosereni added 18:47 - Jan 29 Agreed Jimmy. Just wondering whether Jewell is just not panicking into anything so soon coming back into management. Maybe he is just seeing out the season, confident that he can turn it around without having to make huge changes, and will then consider an overhaul in the summer? Not that I think he needs to massively. I'm sure like others he was pretty peeved that the Austin deal wasn't done, and I do agree that Clegg is clearly in some way to blame for the amount of deals that seem to fall flat. Having said that, unless anyone can correct me, presumably there must be some discussions between manager, execs, and evans etc as to where the buck stops on a players value. We managed to agree a fee for Austin, but I like others on here knew that as soon as Burnley agreed a deal we were stuffed. There was so much in burnleys favour that we were never going to get him then. But you know what do we really know what happened? Did Austin come here with instructions from his agent to not agree anything in the hope that the following morning they would wake up to find out that someone else had come in and offered more? Was Austin or his agent or both just be very greedy? Ask Swindon fans and I think most will tell you that whilst he clearly has talent, he is also disruptive and was known to throw toys out of said pram? Not that I am saying Clegg is blameless, I don't like the idea of him being in charge of our deals as much as anyone else. All I'm saying is it would be interesting to know on this deal how much was his fault?

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StochesStotasBlewe added 19:08 - Jan 29 I think it,s worth remembering that although i,m no big fan of Clegg & his apparent lack of getting deals done, the contributors on here who repeatedly slag off Mr Evans would do well to remember that without his millions, our club might no longer exist. Food for thought ladies & gentlemen?.
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floridaboy added 19:09 - Jan 29 There are a few sad people on here. Throw their toys out of the pram if they dont get want they want ie Austin. It is obvious that Clegg has a wage structure at a club that is losing hand over fist every week. The club put in a good bid for a player who is untried in the championship as far as a goalscorer goes At the end of the day players greed is slowing killing football - end of! Burnley has money from their time in the premiership plus parachute money that will be in place for a couple of years. I am sure the wage structure is very similiar at both clubs but what changes things I am sure if how much of a signing on fee is on the table. Obviously Burnley can offer much more. If the rumours of Austins tantrums and sulks are true then just maybe we are better off without him disrupting the dressing room. In all fairness we have 3 good strikers plus young Murray on the sidelines who is going to be a talent. With Bullard in midfield can see Priskin and Wickham getting an awful lot of changes plus it is about time young Wickham started paying back the faith the club has put in him. Can see good times ahead. Keep the faith people and keep your toys in the pram!

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tractorboy2434 added 19:13 - Jan 29 The reason we are still waiting is that there is NO money, why do you think we cannot pay 150K for Drury, it will be loan players unless Leadbitter goes to WBA on Monday, then there might be some cash, unfortunately that will be too late. I feel sorry for PJ, and am thoroughly disillusioned with ITFC, used to be a good club once, sadly no longer.
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Garv added 19:23 - Jan 29 No money however strangely we managed to put a £2M bid in for Austin. Do one 'tractor boy'.
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StochesStotasBlewe added 19:23 - Jan 29 Perhaps you would prefer Mr Evans to withdraw from ITFC then we will end up in league 2 (or worse) & eternal obscurity. There is much to be positive about as long as we have our benefactor.
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Mark added 19:31 - Jan 29 It sounds like Hutchings is on board with the decision not to sign Austin, and that's good as the last thing we want is a rift between the management and Clegg/Evans already! We all would have liked Austin, but there are plenty of other good players around and we shouldn't blow the budget on one man. Even if we make no further signings this January I have confidence in the team to give us an enjoyable end to the season and Jewell can then build in the summer for a play-off push next year. We're all worried about losing Norris and McAuley, so how about looking at some other club's soon-to-be-out-of-contract players? I am sure Jewell will do that.

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Dolly2.0 added 19:40 - Jan 29 Mr Hutchings is naiive if he thinks you're going to get a quality player without an auction. It would be lovely if nobody else was interested in top players but it's not very realistic is it?
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RetroBlue added 19:44 - Jan 29 Drury will be Norris' replacement , mark my words !
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moomoosereni added 19:50 - Jan 29 Dolly I think what he is trying to say is that both us and Burnley had bids accepted. From then on Swindon have nothing to do with what happens on a negotiating table. He's basically saying that because Burnley had their offer accepted its not like we could go back to Swindon, offer a few hundred grand more and Swindon could then tell Burnley to do one. We need to get over this people and fast, lets judge the whole situation after Jewell has had maybe a month in charge shall we! If Jewell gets the team winning again none of you will care or even remember Austin!

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dirtydingusmagee added 19:52 - Jan 29 pinewoodblueboy, after Olympics, i think Evans will pull the proverbial rug away and ITFC will be F;CKED,Evans and Clegg are not football people, and havnt ''saved '' the club,they have their fingers in bigger pies,and the club is in remission until it serves no purpose to them .Dream on if you think ITFC has been saved .
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stoofer added 20:44 - Jan 29 seems like he has played all his football at a lower level,you would think that by now someone would have had a punt on him,after all he is 27 not sure about this one ,hope i`m proved wrong.
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exeterblu added 20:46 - Jan 29 dirty : I think you'll find that the debt that we now owe to Evans, rather thank the bank, comes with a number of 'no pullout early clauses'. Evans himself insisted that we were added, adding stability to investment in ITFC by showing that he was finacially bound for the long haul. Evans is also a v shrewd business man, and there is no way he would h
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ITFC_Wickham_09 added 20:48 - Jan 29 Corr. we might actually be able to get this guy, COS HE'S NON-LEAGUE!
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exeterblu added 20:48 - Jan 29 ave made such a schoolboy error as spending all his money on keanes first 18 months - im sutre jewell will be given a simiar figure to keane (approx £8m) over the next 18 mths. And im glad about our adherance to a wage structure. I remeber early 2000's when we were 1 step from admin..we sold many good players, inc Matty Holland, for a pitance - having turned down good mutli million pound bids only months previously - bad times :(

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davefromluton added 20:56 - Jan 29 Drury is easily the best midfield/wide man in the Conference. He is fast, can beat his man, good with both feet and can deliver good crosses and dead balls. Whether he can make it in the Championship is a gamble. However for £150,000 is surely a gamble worth taking. Luton don't want to sell but apparently there is a clause in his contract that allows him to go if there is an offer of £150k from a Championship side. It would probably suit us not to sell because he is to us what Charlie Adam is to Blackpool; he could be the difference between promotion to Division 2 and another season in the Conference. So if you want him stop messing about over instalments and sign him before Coventry or some other team beat you to it.

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crazyblue added 21:15 - Jan 29 I used to moan about sheepshanks, but I would take that man over the current muppetts running our club into the ground. I'm really starting to understand Keanes issue with the 2 tools now. What do either of them know about running a football club. I have totally lost it over the Austin deal. Same old crap, different season. Mark my words, Jewell will have walked by this time next season. Our wage structure does not facilitate QUALITY. Yes it will get you players like Rory Fallon, Colin Healy, Lee Martin, Jason Scotland, Kennedy etc, but they are not going to get us out of this league. Dont get me wrong, Austin may go to Burnley and be the next Sam Parkin, but some how I feel I will be haunted most weeks seeing him on the score sheet week in week out. God I hope im wrong and I will eat my words. I am almost sure Derry and Chopra would have signed if the bloody wage structure was slightly higher. Im not saying go mad with the wage structure but at least now realise we will not attract the players with the quality needed to get us out of this league. As for Drury, Im sure he will playing up the road at Carrow Road next week as we lose out on another one. Not bothered about this one to be honest. Another Colin Healy in the making......

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jas0999 added 21:29 - Jan 29 Talking about other players at other clubs - not good. Also,if we fail to sign a striker and a right-back it will be very disappointing. I hope Jewell has identified a number of targets. A £150K transfer of a player unproven at any decent level - and no others - would be a disaster.
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dirtydingusmagee added 21:30 - Jan 29 thanks exeterblu [for civilised response] if my view is wrong ,i still have doubts about their motives.
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jas0999 added 21:35 - Jan 29 p.s. re Austin - sick of hearing 'we have a wage structure'. I totally agree we shouldn't be held to ransom, but spending £20K per week on an injury prone player lacking match fitness, blows the 'wage structure' argument out of the water.
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dirtydingusmagee added 21:35 - Jan 29 im enclined to agree stoofer, i dont want to knock the bloke ,i know nothing about him ,but at 27 i would have thought he would have been picked up along the way.
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portman23 added 22:08 - Jan 29 i just want our old team back, i want our old club back, this isnt the ipswich i know or want. :( wish we could rewind to jim's time in charge. i know about 2001 prem years but tbh to young to remember. at least jim had ambition! he managed to get dos santos! and even made a loan bid for benty! i just wanna cry!!!
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blues1 added 22:32 - Jan 29 please will those people on here who just seem to want to blame someone for players not signing, just go & support someone else. or just wake up to the fact that clegg is not to blame. he can only negotiate deals within the wage stucture set by the owner, not his fault that austin clearly thinks hes worthy of more money than players already here. burnley able to give him what he wants due to parachute payments or i guess hed have turned them down too. or would their chief exec have been to blame as well

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blues1 added 22:38 - Jan 29 jasoo9. we arent paying 20,000 for bullard, of that u can b sure. as for people saying wage structure isnt realistic? blackpool have a limit of 10,000 yet they can get players such as marlon harewood to sign for them, so sure our wages should b quite adequate. unless we trying 2 sign a greedy player such as austin.
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bluearmy4life added 22:57 - Jan 29 I'm very grateful for what Marcus Evans has done for the club, but having such a strict and tight wage structure could prevent us from going nowhere. Jewell and co have worked really hard in a short period in identifying some very good players of which not for the first time the deals are not done. We have the Stadium, fans, facilties, the right manager and backroom staff, and only a couple of three players short of a really decent side to challenge for the top six in my OP. But sadly we have a crap CEO and a ghost of an owner.

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