Town boss Paul Jewell has admitted that he got his approach to recruitment wrong last year and needs to have a more patient outlook during this close season. The Blues manager signed 13 players either permanently or on loan during what was a busy summer, largely experienced senior pros such as Jimmy Bullard, Lee Bowyer, Ívar Ingimarsson, Ibrahima Sonko and Nathan Ellington.

Jewell said: “I think certainly last summer we just trying to get whoever was available all of a sudden. We probably weren’t patient enough. If someone came on the market, we’d think we’d take him because he’s been [a good player].

“Look at Ívar Ingimarsson, we took him. We took Lee Bowyer, we took Jimmy Bullard. Jimmy Bullard got Player of the Year last year and everybody wants you to take people.

“Maybe when you sit back you think that we’ve got to have more of a plan. We’ve got to try and target players earlier, which we have been.

“We’ve improved our scouting network, which is important, both home and abroad, and hopefully we’ll have more of a choice of players to choose from.”

The Blues boss is determined to bring success to the club: “My message is that I’m working as hard as I can. I love my job here and I’m fiercely proud that I’m manager of Ipswich and I really want to give the supporters something to cheer about.

“I understand the frustrations. Patience is a word which we ask people to use, probably at times it hasn’t been shown.

“The owner’s shown that he’s behind me. I want to repay the faith he’s shown in me and I want to repay the supporters because the supporters have always been good to me.”

However, he says success next season may equate to steady progress from this season’s lower mid-table finish rather than anything more tangible: “I hope next season is successful, but success might not always be measured in getting promotion.

“It might be, for argument’s sake, that we just finish outside but we’ve got a really good squad, a really good team and we just lack that one or two players to make the push [the following season].”

As for the season which comes to an end at Doncaster on Saturday, Jewell says his initial aim for the campaign was to finish much higher than where the Blues currently find themselves: “In November or December I would have settled for a mid-table finish, but I wouldn’t have settled for that at the beginning of the season.

“I want to be at the top end of the table, Marcus wants to be there, I want the players to want to be there and I’d love to be able to give these great supporters that in years to come.”

Photo: Action Images

HARRY10 added 11:35 - Apr 25 "If someone came on the market, we'd think we'd take him because he's been [a good player]." Confirmed. what was known by many. PJ was simply flicking through the list of available, released players and saying " I want that one" To compound this ludicrous situation he follows this admission up with "“Maybe when you sit back you think that we've got to have more of a plan". this from a man who has been a manager at various other clubs. Only now is he thinking of bringing in another scout, sometime over the summer. It beggars belief. We should have had scouts indentifying players the whole season. Looking at our weaknesses and where we need to strengthen, then checking if they have the attitute and drive we need before beginning the process of getting them here. For a club of our stature this is a shambles. To admit that the target next season will be to make "steady progress from this season's lower mid-table finish rather than anything more tangible" Having told us there is no money, they are now telling us that means limited ambition. I suspect that it won't only be a few youths who have to leave to balance the books. An extremely low and worrying point in our clubs history.

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brian_a_mul added 12:22 - Apr 25 Give the guy a break! Its not as if he spent badly. He paid decent money for JET and Chops who both had moderate success and hopefully form major part of our team for the next few years. The rest were more or less frees
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dirtydingusmagee added 12:40 - Apr 25 Bullard hero to zero!, Ellington who's he ? Ingimarsson, non event,Bowyer spent force, Chopra has redeemed himself to an extent but has not been the striker we were hoping for . Cresswell best signing by country mile .As for finishing mid table ,we have not reached it yet, and already admitting that a bit of progress from lower mid table is all we can really expect next season, GREAT, ! patient approach, hell will freeze over before PJ gets Town promoted.

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HARRY10 added 12:55 - Apr 25 "The rest were more or less frees " yes, thank god we didn't have to pay them wages - otherwise those would have been wages we could have used for younger, fully fit younger players however the real point here is about the future, not debating past failures - our best hope it appears is to finish a few places higher up the table, a frightening admittance of how far we have fallen

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Surco72 added 13:10 - Apr 25 Harry 10 ..We have fallen a long way and it has been a very long time since we were a consistent force in the highest division ,it just a shame the majority of supporters do not realise this and expect us to be challenging against bigger clubs ,with bigger support structure and more finanacial backing just because we had an exceptional team in the 70s and very early 80s . And before i again get slated for apparantly being happy with our mediocre position which i am not, i am also very realistic to our position in the footballing world and we are a very small fish in a big pond hoping to get a good run and team spirit together to challenge for a promotion push .And that is all we can realistcally hope for ,if that upsets some then so be it but that is the reality

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Wickets added 13:14 - Apr 25 Sorry Buryblue you cannot just dissmiss fans genuine concerns as just moaning about anything, My posts a year ago where asking for a plan for the way foward, PJ now admits we aint got one! As we signed past there best players last year, i posted my dismay!! PJ now admitts his mistakes. Constructive criticism should be welcome.
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Wickets added 13:22 - Apr 25 Brian no such thing as a free!! signing on fee, agents fee, player expecting bigger wage 'cos no transfer fee. All these payments are disclosed in annual reports.Quite often a player with a transfer fee costs less in the long run.
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Sindre94 added 13:23 - Apr 25 Would be nice for a change that people could look forward instead of slating Jewell for his earlier mistakes, move on and look forward. I think Paul will get the right players in, i really do! COYB
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NSL added 13:33 - Apr 25 Patience in the transfer market? How much exactly Paul? We have already been waiting 18 months for you to make a really decent signing. . . . Yes and you'll all say Cresswell , JET etc etc. They are OK but what I want to see is the next Reuser, Stewart, Johnson (god I am rolling back the years). Players that are going to get us out of this league and become club legends. Does PJ have this in him? I think not. Ellington, Bullard, Bowyer, Sonko, Ingimarsson, Chopra. I can't think of a time where we had so many disastrous signings in such a short space of time. Are we going to be adding Stephenson to this list? (maybe a bit harsh).

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Jesney_Havoc added 13:46 - Apr 25 Isn't 10 years patient enough ?
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RaymondovicBlue added 14:14 - Apr 25 Sonian_blue - you just terrified me with your spelling mistake: (Capitals inserted for effect!) .... Lets have someone younger, KEAN with fresh ideas ... Keane, with fresh ideas?!?!?! I think PJ needs to have patience in that he does NOT let anyone know who he is targetting. Past proves that once we state that they all sign elsewhere ! Next season WILL be better - but will it be better enough for a new PJ contract? Sorry, guys - that is not up to us !

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HARRY10 added 14:42 - Apr 25 "and expect us to be challenging against bigger clubs ,with bigger support structure and more finanacial backing" eh ? Look at some of the clubs who have been promoted recently, Burnley, Blackpool, the budgies, Swansea Look at those who are above us - are Watford, Reading, Derby, Brighton, Southampton that much bigger clubs with bigger support. Have they achieved what they have by aiming for "steady progress from this season's lower mid-table finish rather than anything more tangible" ? Two of the above were recently in League 1 and have brushed us aside as they go to the Premier League. No one is claiming that we have an automatic right to be in the Premier League of the playoffs, but maybe we do have a right to expect us to be challenging, and look like we are challenging, for those places not grubbing about a few places higher than our worst ever finish in 56 years ! Because if that is the best we can hope for then as often the case things don't do as well as we hope then it will be a far lower position than this one. The real concern is what is causing this acceptance of failure ? I can only conclude that things are far worse than are being let on and we are be eased into that malaise very gently.

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Warkys_Tash added 14:43 - Apr 25 Bowyer hasn't been great but at least he has put the effort in, as for Bullard what effort has he put in? Nearly everyone wanted PJ to go sign him after last season and he did just that, then the player lets down with his performances on and off the pitch. Don't expect anything from him next season either - despite his ramblings in the Milwall pre match programme.
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Benters added 15:12 - Apr 25 We are fooked
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terry_butchers_twin added 15:33 - Apr 25 If we had a "plan" then we would be able to pick up players BEFORE they came to market. Sadly last year all we had were the leftovers - with a couple of exceptions. What is even sadder is that I am one of those who is left to reflect on past glories and cannot forsee any good times for a while until we get a manager in who is more commited to youth and the lower leagues/imported hidden talent. Yes, you need some experienced old heads to hold the youngsters hands but we have too many of those at present.

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buryblue77 added 16:56 - Apr 25 @wickets, constructive criticism is always welcome and much more use than the posts of the doom and gloom merchants. As someone with a career in management, I know only too well about constructive criticism, I sometimes have to use it towards my staff and I've been on the receiving end of it from the company directors, but it works because it highlights failings and ways to remedy then, if I just moaned at my staff their morale would fall and I'd get even less out of them. The same applies on here, people who constructively criticise usually do so with a valid pont, the moaners who just do it for the sake of it just gets a lot of people wound up.

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Keaneish added 16:58 - Apr 25 Fine. Go and sign Pearce and Ward now.
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TractorBoy666 added 17:17 - Apr 25 It will happen next season too...we'll get close to the top 6 and get too dizzy and think to ourselves, wait let's calm down, we shouldn't be this high in the league!
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tractorboy1961 added 17:48 - Apr 25 Funny how this interview was given AFTER season ticket renewals! I can't imagine it would have been good for business to basically say anything above and better than this season is what is being aimed for.
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HARRY10 added 18:12 - Apr 25 "constructive criticism is always welcome and much more use than the posts of the doom and gloom merchants" To who ? You appear to be under some delusion that our comments will be heeded by the board and/or Paul Jewell. They will not be, so are not directed to that aim. They are about supporters discussing this particular matter. Given the parlous state of the club it is therefore natural that comments will refer to that state. You might choose to portray it as moaning, but perhaps you would have us join you in some 'la la' land where our league position, our threadbare squad and our ever increasing debt are not mentioned. I am not too sure what you 'managed' but it doesn't sound like it had much grounding in planet earth. Yes, if we all hold hands and smile all the bad things will not have happened and will go away. Perhaps you are PJ

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jas0999 added 19:15 - Apr 25 The problem with the 13 players signed last Summer is with exception of Cresswell and JET - none of them have really contributed to us building for the future. Even then we may sell JET! Chopra has been disruptive. The rest were loans who will leave and injury prone has beens who will either leave this Summer or stay on just to claim a decent wage from us. Elllington and Ingimarrsson were truely abysmal signings - that's whether the PJ fans like it or not!! All in all a very poor Summer last year and hope PJ has genuinely learnt from his mistakes and does much better this pre-season. It will be tough though, as on the whole we have not been good at negotiating fees or competing with other clubs over wages - unless the player has only one option ... us! I have seen nothing to convince me that PJ will do a better job next season. Concur with earlier posts ... we could potentially finish in the worst league position for almost 60 years. This is shocking and after a season and a half PJ's fault. I doubt we will - but even missing it by the 'skin of our teeth' against an already relegated Doncaster is completely unacceptable. PJ should be sacked. A truely terrible manager. PJ OUT!!!!!!!!

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Dozzells_Bobblehat added 19:23 - Apr 25 jas - thats your view and fair enough, i wouldnt disagree with some of your points but i would be interested to see who you think should come in and replace him ?
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alliedaz added 20:00 - Apr 25 ere we go again mre excuses and blame any1 and every1 apart frm yourself jewell and you brought these players to ipswich and they all let you down big time and you spent all that time going after portsmouth players and they ave no intention of cuming and the fans no theres mre happening behind the scenes as clegg and evans aint got a clue how to run football club and money does help but bringing the right person in would help and not letting our stars leave for pennies and ask yourself the question why dont ppl cum the answer we just aint good enough

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yorksblue added 20:05 - Apr 25 If Ipswich get any more patient, we'll drop off the map.
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tractorboy2434 added 20:15 - Apr 25 These comments beggar belief, he is supposedly an experienced manager, yet admits to making many mistakes, signing too many players, well he signed them, who really wanted Ingarmarsson, Bowyer and Ellington, I certainly did'nt, just what are we paying this bloke for, he is a disaster and the sooner the club realise it the better, so glad I did'nt renew, seen enough dismal football to last a lifetime and a lot more to come it seems, can he do anything right ?

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