Town striker Michael Chopra won the Footballer of the Year trophy at the inaugural Asian Football Awards at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday evening.

The Blues frontman faced competition from Zesh Rehman (Kitchee SC - Hong Kong), Anwar Uddin (Barnet), Indy Aujla (RRFC Montegnee - Belgium) and Netan Sansara (Paeek FC - Cyprus).

Meanwhile, manager Paul Jewell has confirmed that midfielder Josh Carson was dropped as a tactical move at Leeds on Saturday to give the Town side more height despite the Northern Irishman having had a decent game the previous week against Blackpool: “He played well and maybe people are scratching their heads, but you have to remember we’re not the biggest team.

“We needed to make sure we were strong from set-pieces against Leeds and I think Murph gives us that edge. I actually thought he was unlucky to have been left out against Blackpool.”

Jewell also says he’s still not given up on the possibility of bringing Keith Andrews back to Portman Road, having spoken to Blackburn manager Steve Kean on Monday with Rovers are still undecided as to whether a fee will be asked for the 31-year-old Irishman. Wigan are believed to be the favourites to sign the former Blues loanee before the window closes.

Photo: Action Images

gypo added 11:37 - Jan 26 Who'd bet on that then
0

northstand78 added 11:37 - Jan 26 For doing what...!!!!
0

Sindre94 added 11:40 - Jan 26 Congrats
0

Sindre94 added 11:44 - Jan 26 Be happy for him instead of taking the piss out of him, try it for a change!:)
0

northstand78 added 11:44 - Jan 26 The disconcerting thing about the article is that Carson was dropped for tactical reasons.. That's some tactical move, poor old Carson couldn't even make the bench. You couldn't make it up.. PJ you're making us a laghing stock
0

jas0999 added 11:47 - Jan 26 Laughable. But not as laughable as PJ dropping Carson. Interesting that TWTD have not made that a main headline? This is dreadful management from Jewell and probably indicates that Carson was NOT injured when taken off against Blackpool. Inept management from a terrible manager. PJ OUT!
0

BrettenhamBlue added 11:47 - Jan 26 Well done Michael!
0

walberswick added 11:53 - Jan 26 Joint Winner of the Loser of the Year (with PJ)
0

blueherts added 11:56 - Jan 26 Me thinks Carson has rejected his contract ( correction his agent has) Carson is a tricky little player so unless PJ has a nugget up his sleeve strange one
0

Paddyblue83 added 12:02 - Jan 26 Congrats to CHops now use this as a stepping stone to start banging the goals in again.
0

Paddy39 added 12:08 - Jan 26 Eric Gates was'nt tall either and I don't remember him being dropped much if at all.
0

MaySixth added 12:09 - Jan 26 On what basis did Chopra win the award?
0

Karlosfandangal added 12:22 - Jan 26 But Gates was scarey when he smiled
0

kerryblue added 12:31 - Jan 26 He didnt bet on himself getting that,was worth the gamble though.
0

singtown added 12:33 - Jan 26 PJ is giving everyone false hopes again
0

Mark added 12:35 - Jan 26 Chopra must have been embarrassed to collect it I would have thought. As for Carson, I can only think he indicated he would not sign a contract so was dropped because of that if there were no injury concerns. Players going from the starting 11 to our of the 16 after playing OK is madness of Keane-eque proportions!
0

PJ_Needs_Duncan added 12:40 - Jan 26 Haha good to see that Jewell's tactical swap worked...oh. Jewell Out
0

yorksblue added 12:46 - Jan 26 Yeah, Murphy was so dominant in the air....not. Peters has got more aerial strength than him.
0

stinkiusminkius added 12:50 - Jan 26 To be fair to Jewells tactics, we were looking good and comfortable against Leeds until the defence imploded. And playing josh wouldn't have altered things then. (just trying to maintain some positive balance amongst the jewell out hysteria).
0

Jesney_Havoc added 13:02 - Jan 26 That was a long shot !
0

righty added 13:04 - Jan 26 Sindre94 Im sure your either Jewell in disguise or his love child never read so much Cr""
0

patrickswell added 13:20 - Jan 26 Re: dropping Carson for Murphy and the reasons for it. To be fair, it worked pretty well for 70 minutes on Saturday. It wasn't Murphy's fault we lost the game.
0

Sindre94 added 13:40 - Jan 26 If Carson turns down the contract cause he feels hes too good to be dropped then so be it
0

Seasider added 13:58 - Jan 26 Chops has only gone backwards possibly because of Jewells mates all being crap 1st team coaches. Didnt have to drop Carson out of 16,and didnt need to talk about sending Luke Hyam on loan before either had signed their new contracts did he!Whats his game?Does he know what he is doing?
0

DurhamTownFan added 14:19 - Jan 26 Well if you look at the other nominees, this should clearly be re-named SOUTH Asian footballer of the year, and if you think about it, there are in fact few Southern Asian players who have broken into the mainstream of European or World football. Although this hardly ammounts to a Ballon D'or, I'm hoping Chops takes some positives out of this, and that PJ puts him back in the team so he can get some confidence back.

0

Blogs 298 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls