Town are still to wade through the red tape which is preventing French midfielder Cheick Kourouma from signing for the club. The 20-year-old French-Guinean, who was in the starting line-up at Luton on Saturday, has agreed terms having impressed in a trial at the end of last season but has so far been unable to put pen to paper.

Town have to speak to every club he has been with since he was 12 years old to get agreements in place regarding development compensation as he is below 23 years of age, although no cash is likely to actually be paid.

As a schoolboy Kourouma was with French sides CO Vincennes, ASBR Football, Dijon FCO and US Torcy and Sochaux, who he joined at 15, before he moved on to Spanish club Real Zaragoza and Italians Genoa. The Blues are working their way through the list.

The club has to be careful to get these issues resolved in case one of the clubs comes chasing compensation in the future.

Jewell is hopeful that they will get there in the end: “We’ll try and sign Cheick if we can, but there’s a lot of paperwork to get through.”

Photo: Action Images

cooper4england added 08:54 - Jul 30 I work in the public sector. Nice to know its not just up that get bogged down with irrelvant paperwork. What a farce! Looking forward to getting the boy legit
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MaySixth added 08:54 - Jul 30 Sack it off
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cooper4england added 08:55 - Jul 30 Up=us!
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jas0999 added 09:07 - Jul 30 According to reports he has been poor so far. Is this hassle really worth it - or should we be looking elsewhere?
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Len_Brennan added 09:15 - Jul 30 West Ham have accepted a bid of £1.5m from Bristol City for Sam Baldock - match it & get him in, it'll be money well spent. Another £0.5m for Davies & we'd be flying up front.
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townietilidie added 09:23 - Jul 30 Conact every club since he was 12 ??? What a load of b******t that poxy rule is . What reports says he has been poor so far Jas0999 ? Are they the reports from the negative jas daily press ???
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brian_a_mul added 09:36 - Jul 30 Its just paperwork! it keeps me in a job.... lol When the paper trail is sorted out and he signs I'm sure he will settle into the club just fine. It will take time, lets not judge him too quickly.
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Monkey_Blue added 09:40 - Jul 30 townietilidie spot on, Jas0999 is a very sad man.. Not read anything suggesting he's been poor. I suspect if we'd signed Messi he would put a negative spin on it. Criticise the club/manager when its warranted.
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dirtydingusmagee added 10:05 - Jul 30 ha ha ha, jas0999 you are priceless !
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pitseablue added 10:08 - Jul 30 Jas0999 .......Wny not wait till you see him play before passing comment. Oh just thought as you are not a Town fan that will never happen !
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Langdon_Blue added 10:24 - Jul 30 Pitseablue - Spot on! With the comments he makes, Jas0999 simply must be a budgie with far too much time on his hands. Slating Town players you haven't even seen and making up negative reports that don't even exist, is the work of a carrot cruncher and definately not a Town SUPPORTER!
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Langdon_Blue added 10:28 - Jul 30 Len_Brennan - Like you I'd love us to sign Baldock, but judging by Jewell's comments regarding Davies, sadly I doubt we could compete with a fee of £1.5m...
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Garv added 10:36 - Jul 30 Bristol City have £1.5m to spend and we don't?
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Garv added 10:36 - Jul 30 Bristol City have £1.5m to spend and we don't?
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pazelle added 10:42 - Jul 30 Imagine if Cheick Kourouma ends up working at Burger King, he'll be telling all the fry technicians that he could have signed for Ipswich Town but they pulled out cause they didn't want to wade through red tape! Nice one Cheick you asshole go and serve customers! What a shocking rule this compensation malarkey is, the only victim of it is the poor young player, I bet it'll end careers and for what? Filthy Lucre... Sam Baldock is cack, get Brett Pitman in from Bristol City - should be available at about £250k I reckon.

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buryblue77 added 10:50 - Jul 30 Len Brennan, Sadly I don't think we have that sort of money to spend so matching a bid for Baldock is unlikely. The problem I have is that with the shoestring budget PJ has we still make noises about getting to The Premier League and whilst it can be done I don't have the confidence that we'll be able to pick up enough good lower league players and good frees to really be a serious contender. Having said that Keane tried to spend his way to the top and that didn't work, it seems like Keane spent all the money and now PJ is paying the price for previous errors.

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JewellintheTown added 10:51 - Jul 30 Phil (or anyone else for that matter), can you explain why ITFC have to "speak to every club he has been with since he was 12 years old to get agreements in place regarding development compensation as he is below 23 years of age, although no cash is likely to actually be paid"? No cash is likely to be paid? I dont get it. Whats the point of the discussions and paperwork for an agreement without any payouts? Or is this compensation for any future achievements not past progress? Sorry Phil, not getting it this early on a monday morning.

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buryblue77 added 10:59 - Jul 30 JewellintheTown, clubs are entitled to fees, remember the young Amrerican lad we had a few years back (can't remember his name though) we had to agree fees with his clubs he had been at. I would imagine we're trying to get something in place which stops the trying to get money out of us should he come good or we sell him for a considerable amount, their argument will be that they helped him in his development.

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BROTHERBLUE1974 added 11:04 - Jul 30 It's a shame that all this time spend on a midfielder, which do we really need. It's not spend on sorting our defence out!! How about getting in a defence coach in??
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pazelle added 11:31 - Jul 30 @buryblue77 That player was Devann Yao
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WeirdFishes added 11:48 - Jul 30 Pazelle - you cannot be serious in saying we should sign Brett Pitman? He is one of the worst strikers i have ever seen
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Monkey_Blue added 11:55 - Jul 30 JewellintheTown... I suspect its a case of waivers being signed or similar. Imagine he ends up doing ok and we sell him for £500k, all those clubs would suddenly surface asking for compensation if we hadn't got these agreements in place.
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pazelle added 12:09 - Jul 30 @alexharban Absolutely I'm serious, great goalscoring record and badly used at Bristol City. He's a great finisher and good competition for Scotland and Chopra. Baldock is cack.
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Mark added 12:32 - Jul 30 I thought (in the UK at least) compensation only applied to the previous club if they offered him a 12 month contract on at least his existing wages. Genoa chose to release Kourouma due to their financial circumstances, so I wouldn't have thought they or any previous clubs would be entitled to compensation, but that must be wrong hence the delay. Eastman left us for Colchester and because we only offered him a 6 month deal we did not get compensation. How is that different? Could we not claim something in Colchester sell him later by the same rules? Or is it a UK / non-UK thing?

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Mark added 12:35 - Jul 30 From what I read Kourouma hasn't been great in pre-season, but he is a young lad in a new country so give him the full season to see if he can make an impact. As we have offered him a contract, it would be very unfair on him to withdraw it due to this 'red tape'. He's 20 years old, and where would he then be left, unemployed?
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