Whatever Happened To Adam Webster?

This is a bit of a strange one. Adam Webster was expected to sign for the blues early this week but as the weekend approaches with ever increasing rapidity, can we assume that no news is good news?

The deal, which would have seen Portsmouth`s Adam Webster join Ipswich Town and Matt Clarke and a significant fee move in the opposite direction is now very much open for debate because nothing seems to have developed since the info broke nine days ago so then, what is really going on?

I understand the fee that the Blues are be prepared to pay Pompey in addition to 19-year-old Clarke moving to Fratton Park is a lot more than the £500,000 previously suggested and although the fee and the players terms and conditions are said to have been met, there are other interested parties out there, monitoring the situation.

Birmingham City for example might be more willing to dangle that proverbial money carrot in his general direction and of course money talks in football and although their potential for reaching the top of the domestic football pyramid is arguably less that the Tractor Boys, he could have been swayed by financial assurances that Town are either unable or unwilling to provide?

On another transfer front, Town are stealing a march of other suitors for the signature of 29 year old Liam Feeney, who ended the season on loan with the blues.

And while reports that Feeney is imminently set to sign are rather premature, we do understand that the Blues are very much the frontrunners to land the winger when he becomes a free agent at the end of his Bolton deal on June 30th and he wants to rejoin the club on a permanent basis and the feeling is apparently mutual.

Manager Mick mcCarthy was sounding upbeat when the subject of Feeney was broached by the local media recently and he said, ‘We`re talking to him and we`re talking to his agent. I`d like him to stay and he would like to stay and if we can come to a mutually beneficial deal then that`s what will happen. If we don`t, then we won`t.” That is straight talking Yorkshire speak.

So then, it is still very early days on the transfer merry-go round but I do think most supporters are in agreement that it is better to get the players we need on board as soon as we can and not leave it until the last moment when opportunities are more acute and the playing field a little less level.

Mick McCarthy knows this more than most and that is why, unlike his predecessors perhaps, he is usually quick off the mark when it comes to getting in the players he believes we really need.

He is perhaps less good at seeing our fault lines and addressing these problems with the same kind of fervour though.

Our defence does need improvement but perhaps not as much as our rather limp midfield – which does not score many goals and does not seem collectively to know what the word creativity means…

Frank Weston – editor of Vital Ipswich