Boss Paul Jewell says Town were up against a unique set of circumstances when they were trying to land their trio of Portsmouth targets, Jason Pearce, Joel Ward (pictured) and Stephen Henderson. While Pompey turned down the Blues’ bid for Pearce, Town’s moves for Ward and Henderson broke down over personal terms with Town unwilling to agree to their "excessive" wage demands.

A still frustrated Jewell said: “We were up against the clock really and it was a bit of a saga, to be honest.

“I think they were unique circumstances because it had been going on for three weeks and we were getting different phone calls saying ‘You’re not allowed to speak to the chief executive, you have to speak to the [parent company's] administrator’.

“Then the administrator would come on and say ‘You’ve got to speak to him’, then an agent will come on and say ‘I’m brokering the deal’. It was really messy.

“I knew by four o’clock on deadline day that it wasn’t going to happen because I hadn’t even met the players, I hadn’t even spoken to the players. It was a complete nightmare really.”

He says Town were given the impression that the players would be willing to move while the lengthy fee negotiations continued, but their personal demands — which we understand to have been around triple their Portsmouth terms - exceeded what the Blues were willing to pay: “We were led to believe — not me but people who spoke to their agents — were led to believe that a deal could be done.

“But we can’t do a deal with the players until we’ve agreed a fee. When the fee was agreed eventually, the players’ terms or agents’ demands we felt were excessive, so I said no.”

While not closing the door on revisiting the situation after Football League clubs can take players on loan next week — presumably with a view to permanent deals in the summer — Jewell won’t be moved on wages: “We won’t look at it unless the demands change, that’s for sure.”

In the meantime, the Portsmouth players are still to be paid their wages for January with Pompey not yet receiving the required validation order from the court which would unfreeze their bank account, frozen after a winding up order was issued last month.

The Liverpudlian firmly dismissed suggestions that he had no Plan B — Stoke’s Danny Higginbotham who has since joined Nottingham Forest on loan was amongst a number of other enquiries — and says more players will become available now that the window has closed: “There are others that we have spoken to over the last month, but what happens is — and I don’t blame them — Premier League managers try and sell their players rather than loan them.

“When they know they can’t sell them because the window’s closed, that’s when they become available for loan. That’s exactly how it happens.”

An example of that was Stoke’s Danny Collins joining the Blues on loan soon after the closure of the summer window. Asked whether a similar situation might take place with another Premier League loanee this time around, Jewell was keeping his cards close to his chest: “Could do.”

Photo: Action Images

pastystringbean added 23:01 - Feb 2 Don't wanna be here so good luck to them at Portsmouth, when they leave employment on the south coast, they could always make nets or fish fingers. Actually, if you get to make fish fingers can I come visit? I've heard the fish finger maker 3000 is a joy to behold! Beats the fish finger maker 1000 at a ratio of 3 to 1! Fantastic stuff,COYB.
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Garv added 23:05 - Feb 2 Mark I don't see the problem with targeting Championship players. Admittedly the deals are harder to do but after all you want players that you know can play in this division, not always players that might take a while to step up.
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MoggaOg added 23:11 - Feb 2 Whilst the opinion that they were greedy may well be true... 1. Do we know what they are on at Pompey? If not we don't actually know what they asked for and is possibly not as high as we think. 2. Much of this also comes down to their agents. The players (rightly or wrongly) trust what their agents say. If their agents tell them Ipswich will pay you x thousand a week becuase that's what their going rate is - then they will trust them to negotiate what they believe the going rate at PR is. Thing was there was no time left to negotiate when their wage demands came in and any possible deals collapsed.

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howdonblue added 23:14 - Feb 2 In my opinion many on here were desperate for jewell to sign these players . Let's be honest all three of em are hardly world beaters.. I personally am glad we never signed them... I'm sick of hearing their names now !!! All I hope is that pj does not sign some mercenary 30 something loan players between now until end of the season...
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slowerball added 23:26 - Feb 2 Greedy tw@ts.
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WorcesterBlue added 23:27 - Feb 2 Agree - only Pearce worth the effort and he turned us down for Pompey in the summer. Mark right that lower league talent (Crewe / Swindon / Crawley?) and (god forbid) foreign markets better for us. Spread the net wide and make conracts before the summer and get a squad together nice and early.
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TractorBeezer added 23:36 - Feb 2 MoggaOg You make valid points and I can see how they would want to seek a better deal however 3 times smacks of opportunism.
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ClassyCranson added 23:36 - Feb 2 Pompey's messed up by not selling more players in the transfer window and the players loyalty is misplaced because by going it would have helped their club. We should look elsewhere for new players and not go back for any of these three in the summer.
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itfchorry added 23:52 - Feb 2 Should give Clegg the whole of Janiary off
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mightytown added 23:54 - Feb 2 maybe a mistake going for these particular lads at this time. pompey were desperate to raise cash and maybe the players asked for so much so they didnt have to go. if i was a pompey fan i'd love the fact they all stayed loyal and remained with the club and at such a difficult time. loans look a good option now, yes there short term but our only goal at the moment is short term ......... stay in the league. if we do, the summer is the time to think long term.

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christopherpettit added 23:59 - Feb 2 Jewel has no class he continually blabbers on about things that he cannot change!! stop talking about other clubs players - concentrate on the ones at the club they need help - motivation and a serious improvement in utilising their ability -
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arablue added 00:25 - Feb 3 Am in agreement with PJ...we should not pay excessively for these guys...they are good but not thaaaaat good... Sad that these youngsters are in some sort of a la la land... For us, let's sit on these deals, let them stew for a while; pompey is in a mess, its a matter of time that reality will set in on the players and when pragmatism gets hold of the real world, passion will go creeping out of their door...they will then be ruing their moment of greed (and perhaps at the same time go sack their "agent of greed"...)

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JayITFC added 00:37 - Feb 3 If the players were being pushed out by administrators but wanted to stay, I wonder if Appleton/Chief Executive told the players to ask for excessive terms that Ipswich would never agree to as a way to get the deals off. Regardless, we don't want or need fools that don't want to play for ITFC or get paid!
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Tractastic added 00:39 - Feb 3 “We were led to believe — not me but people who spoke to their agents — were led to believe that a deal could be done '' That means ME and /or Clegg spoke to the agents. '' demands we felt were excessive, so I said no.” ME and /or Clegg said no. Does anyone else feel the purse strings tightening? However don't rule some these players coming to PR on loan when the HM tax office close the net. In the meantime sort out some defensive loanee's please PJ and a big holding centre forward wouldn't go amiss.

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VanIsleBlue added 02:34 - Feb 3 Don't want any of those greedy Pompey wasters. I like us going for the Cresswells, Drurys, Stevensons of this world...or better still Ipswich boys like Hyam, Wright, Dyer etc
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howdonblue added 05:44 - Feb 3 Agree itfchorry give CLEGG the whole of January off and feb,march,April,may,June,July, August, sept,oct,nov,dec.
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ruffcider added 06:22 - Feb 3 but their personal demands — which we understand to have been around triple their Portsmouth terms Dont blame they players for doing the only thing they could to stop the move. Blame Jewell for wasting so much time on it and talking about it whenever he could, perhaps he should have listened to the press when the players said they didnt want to leave. They have contracts you know, they dont have to leave their boyhood club jsut because CSI'S administrator says so. Thank god Jewell is not our manager. I look forward to the 14th

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ruffcider added 06:31 - Feb 3 You put your first bid in about 2 weeks before the end of the window, he must have worked out the system then....surely What a waste of everyones time, and a silly man for blabbing about it soo much
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floridaboy added 07:08 - Feb 3 Lets hope they dont get paid in February either and end the month with a 10 point deduction. Thoroughly deserved IMHO Credit to the club for not agreeing to the greed which is eventually going to kill the game. When will these players who after all have a very very good life seem to think they can screw clubs out of even more. It really would be a great shame if Pompey were deducted 10 points which would eventually prove too much and they were relegated. Great shame!!!!

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ruffcider added 07:18 - Feb 3 So you lost out because you didnt know who to speak to, you spoke to the right person 3 or 4 times as bids were reported everywhere, on here for 1. Get over it Jewell, they didnt want to come, youve made your club look bad not them, you wouldnt listen
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Surco72 added 08:21 - Feb 3 Jewell tried to sign three players from a small time club who cannot run themselves properly who paid ridiculously over the top fees and wages for a few minutes in the sunshine, due to a very corrupt dodgy dealing chairman and board. The pompey fans are mistaking loyalty for greed ,the players know they can up there wages by signing for another club now or will be free to sign for anyone soon getting larger wages as no fee when Pompey go under . Jewell has certainly not made our club look bad by refusing to bow down to ridiculous wage demands ,shame Pompey didnt do the same and they might not look like the mickey mouse club they are struggling to pay bills every couple of years

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jas0999 added 09:08 - Feb 3 So knowing this, where was the Plan B PJ? Poor management IMO.
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ruffcider added 09:18 - Feb 3 The pompey fans are mistaking loyalty for greed I think you are mistaking greed for loyalty. The only thing you have on us is youre financially more stable at the moment, if someone buys us things will hopefully change, and thats what the players are waiting for, that or as you described if it did go tets up they will be able to choose to go where they want, not forced to join Ipswich. All these playes either came through the youth or were bought for a relatively small amount, and none of these players are on anything like the wages our old players were. Their inflated requests for wages proves if they HAD to leave, the only way they were joining Ipswich was if they were on wages that would help them forget where they were and who they were playing for

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Surco72 added 09:19 - Feb 3 Jas .. this was plan B ,surely plan A was St Ledger deal agreed early in transfer window ,player admitted he thought he was joining cancelled at the last minute. Plan C Higginbottom from Stoke,Plan D loan defenders now they are available again . Same as Magilton did ,same as Keane did ,hopefully the loans will more like Jims standard of Dos Santos rather than Keanes Stern John and Rory Fallon !!

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osborne1nil added 09:59 - Feb 3 Agree Surco72, that was the way i read it. If SSL had arrived then I doubt they would have been chasing Pearce. Interesting JAS0999 that you didn't comment on PJ telling them to get stuffed with a potential 3 x wages demand. Let them rot at Portsmouth along with Norris. If we get a player or two on loan for a few months at this time of the year, you would hope that they would be keen to prove themselves and put themselves in the window for the summer?

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