Jewell Could Make First Signing Next Week
Friday, 6th May 2011 08:16

Town boss Paul Jewell has revealed that the Blues could make their first summer signing as soon as next week. The Town manager says the club has spent the last few months quietly working on recruiting the players he needs to make the Blues more competitive next season.

Jewell said: “There are deals going on where the owner is talking to other chairmen that we’re trying to keep as discreet as possible about. There are deals in the offing, shall we say.

“I would say that some aren’t a million miles away but my experience in football is that once you start saying a deal is done, something comes along and kicks you right in the nuts.

“You’ve got to be careful. I’d rather be sat here and say ‘listen, we’ve signed two players today, this, that and the other’ than say ‘I think it’s going to get done’ because as soon as you think it’s going to get done, something happens overnight. But we are very hopeful of maybe completing a deal next week.”

The Blues boss says Town securing their divisional status relatively early has meant that work on the summer transfer dealings could get under way sooner than might have been the case: “I don’t want into rush anything, but the beauty of what the lads have done this season is that we know we’re going to be a Championship team next year and we’ve been actively trying to do that for quite some time.

“These things take time. In my experience, if you can buy players with a clear head, it’s a lot easier than buying them in the transfer window when the clock’s ticking and you end up getting players for the wrong reasons.

“If we can get the players that we want, we’ve done our homework and it’s been a bit of a long process.”

Jewell says that process began the moment he arrived at the club in January: “The identification of where we need to be better for next season has been going on since we got here. Once you know where you need to improve, you go about trying to improve that with players, clubs and agents.

“We’ve been working really hard behind the scenes trying to put things in place to get people here for next season. For that to happen, you need a little bit of luck, you need to be a little bit ahead of the game in some aspects and have a good scouting system.

“We’ve got a lot of targets that we’re looking to bring in, we’re obviously not going to get all of them, but I think it’s important that the supporters know that we’re not thinking ‘we just need one or two players to have a chance of being better next season’.

“We need four or five quality players to go straight into that team on top of what we’ve already got.”

Photo: Action Images

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Behind_Enemy_Lines added 10:16 - May 6

Let's get one thing straight Keane did have players wanting to sign early only to miss out on the deals not getting done due to wages, but I like that he is trying to keep it under wraps until the deal is done. In the past the speculation has sometimes pricked other managers ears up and then we find out the player is now going to other club.
But let's not forget they still have to get by Clegg so based on past dealings let's hope we can do the deals this time out before anyone else jumps in !!!!!

Wussinwhiteboots added 10:24 - May 6 May I be the first to welcome back Keiron. He is going to move in with Gomez for the summer, "we can rebuild him"!
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suffolkpoker added 10:26 - May 6 The problem with keane was he was targeting players we wasnt able to afford, if he would of done his home work on these players, we could of focused on players we can afford. Then we wouldnt of missed the boat so many times... I could easily say we need rooney and messi, then it all falls out of bed when trying to sign them due to wages.
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urbanblue added 10:37 - May 6 I like what i'm hearing. Sick of in the past getting my hopes up on a potential signing only to get them dashed, so much so that i stopped reading any story on deals that may happen ....' ... quietly working on potentials ....' sounds real good to me. Exciting, interesting times ahead !
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Karlosfandangal added 10:41 - May 6

Cant get excited about next season as I have heard all this before for last 3 seasons.

The lost of Bullard McAuley and Norris and very possible Wickham arguable are best players will mean we need more like 7 or 8 players and I really cant see that happening.

July is when we can sign players so he must be going for out of contract players, we need fresh blood and not players who teams want to off load.

Dyer should be able to do a job in the Championship but failed to do that in the short time he was with us because again he got injuried. West Ham may be a Championship side next year so why would they not keep Dyer, they can offer him a new contract on far lest then he is on now and far more than what we can offer.
Do we really need a 15-20k a week man sitting in the treatment room for the next 2 or 3 years, how many games has he played in the last 4 years.

urbanblue added 10:50 - May 6 Karlosfandangal, a player being out of contract doesn't necessarily mean his club wants to offload him .... GMac being a case in point. The fact that PJ and his team have been working on a long term plan since they arrived would seem to be different from before, when it seemed to be made up as we went along. Have some faith Mate !
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bobble added 10:53 - May 6 do we need a new tea lady so soon ?
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urbanblue added 10:57 - May 6 Bobble, we already have one .... Jason Scotland !
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dirtyboy added 11:09 - May 6

I'm hopeful Drury will come on leaps and bounds next season, he actually looked one of our better players when he came on against City, and has shown glimpses of what he's capable of, £150k was a bargain. So a good start IMO. A pre season with the lads, I'm certain he'll be part of the plans.

I have full faith in PJ, if he likes Ched Evans, then so do I, i'm not making judgements, until the lad is signed, and played enough games to be judged upon.

suffolkpoker added 11:19 - May 6 i thought Scotland was running the pie stand?
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urbanblue added 11:22 - May 6 He was, but took over the tea duties from ALB who kept dropping the cups !
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Sindre94 added 11:26 - May 6 NICE <3<3<3
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adamisablue added 11:55 - May 6

suffolk poker- to answer your question, the transfer window opens as soon as the season closes and runs about 3 weeks (ish into the new season. however, i belive (tho not 100% sure) that negotations can go ahead before, but will not be processed until the window opens (hence brian murphy joining late a couple of seasons ago) free agents can be signed at any given point, but its very rare they will be a free agent in the middle of a season anyways. but with clegg at the helm, i wouldnt be supprised...

fourth added 12:11 - May 6 6'4" 16 stone Havoc-in-the-box
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Karlosfandangal added 12:27 - May 6

Urbanblue

Good point, However why do McAuley and Norris want to leave?
If average players want to leave it will be hard to attract Quility players unles we are prepared to push the boat out.

Its hard to have faith after the last 3 years.
Yes the results have been better than under Keane, However it seems strange that we had players plaqying for contracts and the results improved, yet now players have signed or made up their minds to leave the results have dropped.

Have hope but have been so let down by all the players that are coming and then never arrive.

Josh_Ippy added 12:27 - May 6 I'm glad to see that we are getting faces in nice and early. Under Keane in both summers it seemed to take an age for us to get players in. This then meant that the players couldnt settle in and plat well. If we can get our squad sorted by the end of July that would be great. Not asking for anything great this season just consolidation!
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suffolkpoker added 12:33 - May 6 adamisablue - thanks..
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Mark added 12:48 - May 6

I think last summer Norwich had all their transfer business done and dusted before we made even our first signing (Connor Hourihane, who we've never since seen play).

I do think Keane carries a lot of the blame, as the list of players he handed Clegg to get seemed to be very small, usually players he knew personally (Hourihane, Fulop and Kennedy being example last summer). Jewell on the other hand is going round the grounds looking at a much wider pool of possibilities, and probably doing much of the groundwork himself using his experience in football management. I expect Jewell is helping Clegg out no end, and so hopefully we can get some deals done quickly. Quick deals mean getting first choices, not fishing in the scraps come late-August!

GeorgiDoundarov added 12:52 - May 6

Well the transfer window is closed now. How we will be able to make a transfer?! Unless he is a free agent already? This seems strangely familiar to me... Remember Jim on the first year of Evans era was saying he will nnot be in for the last match of the season so that he goes hunting for new additions. He also was saying by June 1st he will be adding 2-3 players... So to summarize - until I see it happen I will just wait and not get too excited.
PJ is saying we need to ad 4-5 quality players. Correct but only if Norris and MacAuley are staying. If they leave - we need 6-7 new quality players so good luck Paul! You will need it!

Trayler7 added 12:52 - May 6 From a very reliable source, Andy Johnson and Obertan(loan) are on there way to portman road, You heard it hear first !!
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jas0999 added 12:58 - May 6 Surco72 - how many more times do I have to say that Roy was rightly sacked!!! I am merely pointing out that for too many seasons now, whether under Roy or Jim, we have left our Summer shopping much later than most. I don't believe it was the managers fault as both wanted to sign players earlier!
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bontcho added 13:02 - May 6 Have a lot of faith in Jewell. And remember just because we've not heard of him doesn't make him a bad signing. Far too many people on here seem to follow that logic.
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bluearmy89 added 13:05 - May 6 Just adding to some people's questions bout transfers, you can agree a deal for a player at any time throughout the season but the date of the deal being completed and the player being yours is when the transfer window opens, thats right isnt it? Hopefully this seems to be a good couple of signings but expect the worse then you wont get to disappointed. COYB!!
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simonsays added 13:11 - May 6 Heard it all before from Keane etc. Not the managers fault, they are identifying the players they want - Chopra, Derry etc but Clegg/Evans failing on their part of bringing players in. Feel sorry for Jewell like I did Keano.
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