Ward to Move in Next Few Days
Tuesday, 15th May 2012 11:21

Portsmouth administrator Trevor Birch expects Town target Joel Ward to leave Fratton Park in the next few days. Contrary to reports last week, Birch says Leeds isn’t necessarily his destination with the Blues and Burnley also having held talks, and Crystal Palace linked.

Birch, who has received no offers for any other Pompey player, said: “Joel Ward will be the next to go but I am not certain of the timescale on that. That is progressing. I would have thought something should be happening in the next few days.

“It is not necessarily going to be Leeds. He has met a few other clubs in total and has been talking things over with them. We are waiting to see what the outcome will be.”

Town have been targeting Ward, who will reportedly leave his hometown club for a fee of £450,000, since January when he was one of three Pompey players they were chasing.

Offers were accepted for Ward and keeper Stephen Henderson, who is now with West Ham, but the moves broke down over personal terms. A bid for central defender Jason Pearce was turned down and the former Bournemouth man recently moved to Leeds. Pearce and Ward are close friends, which may be what has led to speculation that the Whites are frontrunners for the latter’s signature.

According to reports in Yorkshire, Leeds boss Neil Warnock is hopeful that he can complete two signings, believed to be Ward and Derby’s Paul Green, before the end of the week.

Blues manager Jewell, who signed out-of-contract midfielder Green from Doncaster when he was at Pride Park, has played down his interest in the 29-year-old Irish international.

Ward, 22, played under Burnley boss Eddie Howe during a spell on loan at Bournemouth in 2008/09 while the Clarets manager was in charge of the Cherries.

Meanwhile, sources in the North-East continue to link departing Blue Grant Leadbitter with a summer Bosman switch to Middlesbrough, as has been reported since March.

Photo: Action Images

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Stato added 13:48 - May 15 @buryblue77 nice one, nearly spat my tea out
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Warkys_Tash added 13:50 - May 15 Regency Blue - You have by far the best Avatar on here. Brilliant. johnwalkstash - could you not think of your own username?
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Bergholtblue added 14:34 - May 15 Oh well another slips through our grasp. Still the Olympic uniform for the Guam team looks nice and I hear their party will be a real swank affair.
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DiamondGezzer added 15:02 - May 15 weddings :- Paul Jewell says who he wants for the team and Simon Clegg and Marcus Evans do the negotiations.
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Keaneish added 15:08 - May 15

So, we bid for Ward and spoke to his agent in January...
We invited him down for a chat and a look around end of March...
It's now May and he's going to make a decision after speaking to 2 if not 3 other clubs...

Mmm, i wonder how this one is going to pan out!?

Is Evans giving Clegg an impossible task to do? Is it a combination of this and the location of our club? Or is Clegg just really bad at his job?

I think all the targets PJ gives Clegg and Evans are realistic so why does this always fall down, which this inevitably will!? It has to be down to one of 4 things:

Money, Ambition, Location or the Hard Sell.

Could we do more as fans by making PR a vociferous, vocal atmosphere each game which is inspirational and attractive to play in front of? Definitely, but some of the 4 things mentioned have to be the reasons we miss out on promising young players. Cressy is the only one to buck the trend to date!

DiamondGezzer added 15:15 - May 15 Keanish :- Maybe Wards unrealistic wage demands weren't just so that he didn't have to leave his club. Put it another way, perhaps he's a gready B...... Agree with you also on the PR atmophere comment.
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buryblue77 added 15:28 - May 15

Keanish, I'm not sure location can be the major factor, after all we're not that far from London. There has to be something underlying with the feel ofthe club, atmosphere etc....after all we've signed some players on big wages in the past (it does seem that our spending is going to be down this year,but then I think a lot of other clubs will be too) but now we seem to struggle to do deals with a lot of players who come along for 'a look'
have you ever been along for a job interview and thought, I don't know, something just doesn't feel right about this place. Then hoped you don't get the job/turn down if offered, well I have and turned it down, is it a similar type of thing at PR at the moment, after all a certain Roy Keane said something about working with Clegg and wouldn't have taken the job had he met him first.

Bossman, cheers can you now just tell my wife and my work colleagues that my jokes are funny lol

Keaneish added 15:28 - May 15 Agreed DiamondGeezer, or maybe he's tied to his agent's apron strings as much as he is Jason Pearce's and his agent made the demands. Either way, it does sem it was him rather than Henderson who whacked the wage valuation at the time! Where are Leeds getting cash from though!? I thought Grayson had to sell to raise the coin!!
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mightytown added 15:40 - May 15

I understand people's frustrations in regard to losing out to other clubs for the signature of players as there is history to show that we have often missed out when trying to lure players to portman road.

I think the ugly truth of it, is that we have over paid for players in the past so clubs, agents and players believe they can wrangle extra cash in doing a deal with town.

The problem is for all our spending we've gone backwards and we have to accept, that despite our fine history and the reaffirmation of marcus evans 'ambition' we are not a club with forward going momentum at the moment. there are other clubs, bigger then us, in this division, bigger clubs promoted from league one and coming down from the premiership.

The view of some is that if we want certain players, we just need to spend over the market value and get them in. This however, does not guarantee success as we know, as do Leicester - how much did they spend last season? buying all the players they wanted! and they're still outside the top 6!

on the other hand, we paid more or less 100k for drury and stevenson combined. ok, stevenson has only been at the club for a short while but drury has been arguably one of our top performers. Cresswell looks worth every penny - he too was inexpensive and i dont think we over paid for JET either.

we obviously have the ability to bring talented players to the club, we just dont get every play we want too! think we may just have to wait for the first couple of summer signings to see the true intent of the club for next season!

if players dont want to come fine but i think the club is right to put an end to paying over the odds. at the moment all the talk on transfers is just speculation and it seems to be causing a certain amount of hysteria amongst fans.

Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 15:48 - May 15 "Have you heard the one about Leeds?" "Nope!" "Oh, so you have heard it then!"
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Mr_Evans added 16:04 - May 15 Why are we not looking over seas? I'd like us to pick up some good standard Dutch and Scandanavian players. Get a little flair into the squad.
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PunchNoHopers added 16:15 - May 15 Unless a Prem club comes in for him, it will be Leeds or Leicester I suspect!
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WorcesterBlue added 16:16 - May 15 Move on - Caddis looks better anyway.
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jas0999 added 16:50 - May 15

Clearly Ward is near the top of PJ's wish list (as tried unsuccessfully to sign him in January). Therefore ME, Clegg and PJ will be working hard to ensure we come out on top and competing with other clubs in the Championship. The news on where Ward ends up will IMO define how our Summer is going to go - either we will land targets or we will lose out to other clubs - unless they are freebies who are old or players who no-one wants or loanees. Bit like last Summer. PJ and Clegg need to learn from past mistakes.

bigolconnor added 17:00 - May 15 I've never won a bet but I bet ward signs for us within a week. He looks like a town player of the new school variety.
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Keaneish added 17:10 - May 15 What's this bloke like? Anyone any ideas? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18072899
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blues1 added 18:04 - May 15

here we go jas 0999 is back to the usual negative, without any basis comments. how will the destination of 1 player define how the whole of our summer is going to go?unless youve been away for the last few months, youd have clearly heard pj say that he made mistakes last season & outlined the different approach to signing players this year. so why doesnt every1 just wait & see what happens before being so negative. if we signed no decent players before the start of the season then we all have the right to be damning of itfc & their handling of transfer dealings, but for now just dont judge based purely on speculation

Dozzells_Bobblehat added 18:43 - May 15

We have been linked with lots of players over the last few weeks, but the only one who the club have actually admitted to having talks with/subject of a bid is Ward. All the others could be total rubbish. So maybe we should wait and see before people start slagging SC/PJ off. As said by blues1, if by end if July we haven't made the required signings then fair enough.

mightytown added 19:08 - May 15

well said bobblehat and blue1. tried to make that point in my previous post. we just need to wait and see what unfolds. although the club is trying to get in line with ffp rules they are more than aware that not investing in the squad could be fatal and could lead to relegation. furthermore they have continually said promotion is the goal they hope to achieve. we should judge them at the end of the summer, this summers transfer dealings will reflect the clubs ambition, not speculative transfer gossip.

murraybrunning added 19:09 - May 15 Good player, hope he choses us but only if he's gonna be proud to wear the shirt!
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buryblue77 added 19:43 - May 15 @mightytown, whilst I can understand your sentiment, IF we fail to land some or all of our targets again this transfer window it wont be the first time. Now is not the time to fully embrace FFP, now is the time to invest whilst we still can if we really do want to go up.
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TimmyH added 20:12 - May 15 yawn...this is getting boring now, we all know where he is going.
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scooterblue added 21:09 - May 15 the season has only finished a couple of weeks ago and as far as i am aware we start playing in mid august so stop moaning. agree with dozzells bobblehat though in that if by the end of july and there are no major arrival's , then that is the time to start worrying.
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