See Below - Bit ammused about this, but also annoyed at the same time!! Leeds Unitedâs failure to find the cash in order to sign Blues target Joe Ward is reported to be close scuppering the chances of the Whites landing the Portsmouth defender or midfielder. Neil Warnockâs club were believed to be heading the race having held talks with the 22-year-old soon after signing his former Pompey team-mate and close friend Jason Pearce. Long-term admirers Town, Burnley and Crystal Palace are also all believed to have agreed a fee with Portsmouthâs administrator, variously claimed to be somewhere between £400,000 and £450,000. Now Blackpool â who could be a Premier League side after today's Championship play-off final â are said to have submitted a written offer, while Sheffield Wednesday are also showing interest. Ward is understood to be set to speak with the Seasiders and the Owls with his decision likely to be made at some point this week.
If I was Ward, my preference would be Blackpool - if they get promoted. So we won't get a decision today, that's for sure. The thing that worries me is that we spoke to Ward on the 10th - that's 9 days ago. Worrying.
For me its time to move on.. We have offered Ward a deal and his agent has them gone around the country trying to get a better deal. The last time we held to ransom like this was by Andy O'Brien (with Cardiff) and look what calibre of man that got us... For me we should be contacting Matthew Bates or Justin Hoyte from Middlesbrough instead.
FFS we've agreed wages with Ward, all that needs to be done is to pay Ipswich a £400k transfer fee and we can't do it. Matthew Bates' career is finished and Justin Hoyte is worse than Paul Connolly.
Sorry meant Portsmouth. And Ipswich have no chance of getting him, he's going to end up at Blackpool.
I don't care, I am happy we are trying to buy players like Ward. If I am 100% honest I expect to see Halford join and Lees play as right back.
if we cant afford to pay for ward, then this should tell us the type of players we cant afford. I heard the same thing with George Boyd, we offered him a substantial contract and we couldnt afford to pay the fee they wanted. This was confirmed by adrian durham on his twitter. Unless there free, there is no point in making moves for players we cant afford
Your expectations must be absolutely rock bottom if you're loving it that we've tried and failed to sign an average Championship right-back who's still considered the best man we could get, even though we're by far the biggest and biggest-grossing club in this division. How can you not be upset, and indeed not care, that we're failing to muster 400k for a vital position we need to strengthen?! 400 ****ing k! We probably generate that much from the East Stand most games. We've sold so many players for more and failed to reinvest. We've spent over ten times more than that on bloody building projects. And Tom Lees is a shoddy right-back - League One level at best in that position. Seriously not good enough, just like everything coming out of the club except for the third coming of Christ known as Jason Pearce. Once again, it's sell to buy and freebies and loanees. No hopers. If we make the top half next season, I'm re-enacting the London Riots on my own. Time to wake up and smell the Aldi supervalue coffee you've just paid gourmet prices for.
I am unhappy that a signing we should get no problem has hit a snag like this. At the end of the day, failure to pay the fee is because the money has been wasted defending that sorry excuse for a **** in charge of the club.
According to Ipswich....... Grow up & grow a pair the lot of you, do you really believe we do not have £400,000 spare. We will have millions in the accounts with all the season ticket cash. So if we wanted to spend £400,000 we would have, I imagine the lad still has not made up his mind. What you have here is mischief that you all have believed, think about it.... Ward has just seen financial ruin at Portsmouth, Ipswich realise they are losing him to Leeds if they don't act. They put this story out there to try to get their man. His agent will want him to go wherever he will get the largest signing on fee (that will not be Leeds). He is most likely waiting to see if Blackpool can offer Premiership football before deciding his future.
Not according to Ipswich, according to 3 seperate sources. He will not sign for us, whatever happens to Blackpool.
Ipswich, his mum & his gardener? I don't know whether he'll sign or not, but really, believing a phrase like '3 sources'. What value do these sources have when they're unnamed?
Do you not understand how this works? Sources have to go unnamed because they need to stay anonymous. A lot of them are liable to lose there jobs or professional respect if their names are known.
I do understand it, Simon, but unless you know even the general direction of the source, you cannot possibly assess the value of their opinionated/factual assessment. Anyone can write anything they like quoting 'sources'. But of course, the UK press would never make anything up, would they?
