TWTD understands that Town are close to completing the loan signing of Hull City midfielder Jimmy Bullard. The 32-year-old is expected at Portman Road today and looks likely to be reunited with his former Wigan boss Paul Jewell in the next few days.

Sources at Hull City confirmed Town’s interest in the ex-West Ham, Peterborough and Fulham man earlier in the week with the Tigers desperate to off-loan the 32-year-old’s £45,000-a-week wage.

As with previous loan deals involving players on Premier League wages, such as last season’s recruitment of Daryl Murphy and David Healy, Town are likely to have agreed to pay only a proportion of the Londoner’s salary.

Bullard joined Hull from Fulham for £5 million during the Tigers’ stint in the Premier League and is contracted until 2013.

Speaking after last night's game at Arsenal, chief executive Simon Clegg was typically taciturn regarding transfer speculation but told TWTD that the first deals of the transfer window were close: “I think that we are near to a couple of situations and I would expect people to be hearing some movement on what our intentions are over the next couple of days.”

Earlier in the week, manager Paul Jewell revealed that the club had made two bids with Bullard and Luton's Andy Drury likely to be the players involved.

Photo: Action Images

Seasonticketsteve added 13:20 - Jan 26 Cant see any problems with this deal. Bullard is STILL a quality player and is a match winner in this league. Ok even if we pay all of his wages, its going to cost us less than £1 million till the end of the season-about £750k roughly, there isnt likely to be a signing on fee as Hull will just be relieved to get him off their books, unlike the Townsend & Livermore deals where apparently we paid quite a hefty loan fee for according to Keane. Then in the summer if we do want to sign him, its likely to be on a free and im sure we can negotiate his wages down then. The only thing I can think of that is a worry is obvioulsy his injury record, still worth a gamble on loan with a view to a permanant deal in the summer. On a side note, very proud of the nine thousand fans that were at the Emirates last night, we totally outsang the other fifty thousand Arsenal fans-good effort everyone :)

0

casanovacrow added 13:24 - Jan 26 where did this Norris wage of 30-35k a week come from Karlosfandangal? My un named sources have Fulop as the highest earner on vastly less than that
0

ClassyIpswichLass added 13:29 - Jan 26 This means corners take on a whole new meaning for us. The opposition will no longer consider a corner for Town as an opportunity for them to score. This is all too weird.
0

casanovacrow added 13:33 - Jan 26 ClassyIpswichLass A corner would be an opportunity to score ...if the guy makes it on the pitch ;)
0

muhrensleftfoot added 13:35 - Jan 26 Any sensible loan deal for Bullard will have clauses regarding his fitness to play, and there will be a loan fee, which Hull will offset against his wages. All we need is for Clueless Clegg to make the deal. If it does happen then finally we should have some flair in our midfield to compliment the hard working Norris & Leadbitter.
0

moomoosereni added 13:40 - Jan 26 Worth the money just for the comedy value alone!
0

ClassyIpswichLass added 13:42 - Jan 26 @casanovacrow If we scored from just one corner this year it might be worth it. Who knows, it might be the last game of the season (and Bullard's first for us), in the 90th minute. A Bullard corner leads directly to a goal and we: a) reach the play-offs or b) stay up or c) wake up Let me dream a little.
0

TownBlue1984 added 13:46 - Jan 26 Has anyone else checked out Bullard's official Twitter account?? According to that he doesn't want to sign for Town. http://twitter.com/jimmy_bull
0

moomoosereni added 13:49 - Jan 26 TownBlue1984: Judging by some of the comments on there it seems doubtful thats his genuine Twitter account! He's talking about riding a motorbike through the back roads so as not to get caught by the police, and buying a quad bike at a car boot sale?!
0

bluelady added 13:50 - Jan 26 townblue do we know for sure its him? i would hazzard a guess this is someone messing around!
0

casanovacrow added 13:51 - Jan 26 Well spotted TownBlue 1984 Bullard - "they tried to make me goto Ipswich, I said no, no, no"
0

bluelady added 13:56 - Jan 26 re: twitter 1. it maybe a hoax 2. it maybe more of his humour 3. He is according to this website due at Ipswich today, so he aint said no no no or he wouldnt have come here at all would he now! sorry for those who dont want him to come, but this twitter story aint convincing me! It will be the finer detail of wage that may well scupper this, lets see what happens! I am sure even if Clegg hasnt got a head on his shoulders Jewell does so he will not take on a risk like this at the risk of loosing his captain. If Norris wants out they may not be anything anyone can do..

0

Karlosfandangal added 13:58 - Jan 26 Casanovacrow Counago, Lisbie, Quinn and Norris £30-£35k a week to put towards Bullard's wage if we were to sign him as a perminent deal. Average wage at Ipswich for 1st team is about 8k a week based on number of 1st team pros and the reported wage bill at the end of last season, However alot of coming and goings in the summer, so will be intreasting to see the wage bill at the end of this season

0

dannyhegan added 14:04 - Jan 26 I question his fitness. Maybe he will be used as an "impact player". Nevertheless if we are not paying too much money per week to him it will be worth it. At one point he seemed unplayable so here's hoping he can do it again.
0

casanovacrow added 14:08 - Jan 26 Thanks for that Karlosfandangal , panic attack over lol.
0

TownBlue1984 added 14:12 - Jan 26 'They tried to make me go to Ipswich, I said no, no, no' 6:50 PM Jan 24th via Twitter for iPhone This post was updated a whole day before TWTD broke the story. Seems unlikely a hoaxer would have first hand knowledge before the press or inside sources!!
0

tractorgirl2 added 14:25 - Jan 26 its just said that jimmy wants to come on sky sports pending a medical
0

bluelady added 14:28 - Jan 26 hate to disagree town blue Mon 24th Jan 2011 17:23 Town have been linked with a move for Hull City midfielder Jimmy Bullard. The 32-year-old was in Blues boss Paul Jewell's Wigan squad which beat Town to promotion to the Premier League in 2004/05.
0

TownBlue1984 added 14:31 - Jan 26 oh yeah i must of missed that earlier story my bad. It might be a fake then, but you just dont know with Bullard, funny but strange character
0

bluelady added 14:34 - Jan 26 well we got rid of keane so have to try to bring in a bit of madness to replace him townblue, will never be a dull moment with Jimmy B!
0

Wussinwhiteboots added 14:44 - Jan 26 From his Hull record so far this season it does not look like they've wrapped him in cottonwool. In September/October played four consequtive full games. Then out with ligament damage/injury. Returned as 64th min sub V Blades on Boxing day scored 93 min winner, 2 more sub appearences on 28/12 and 1/1 then full game V Pompey on 3/1. Subbed after 61 mins V Wigan in FA Cup on 8/1, then unused sub in last 2 league games. Could step straight in V Derby?

0

corshamblue added 14:56 - Jan 26 . . . . pending a medical. Interesting. If there's a choice, I'd prefer to keep Norris. Seemed quite happy out on the right last night, isn't that where he started off? think he only played inside Mid because of Walters. COYB.
0

WickedBlue added 15:10 - Jan 26 @casanovacrow football is a funny game...a player can be at one club and play like crap but move to another and be a superstar, the reverse is also true. The same can be said about injuries, a player can seem to be injury prone at one club but move to another and enjoy a long period of fitness. Now we come to my problem with your posts....you pass your opinions as fact, you think SC and ME are far from agreeing a deal with Norris and McA........but that is not what you say. You say it like it is a fact so I take it you are sitting in the the discussions...you say they are miles apart from what SC is offering to what the players want so tell us how much are the club is offering? How much do the players want? I bet you don't have a clue do you. I know I don't about what goes on behind the doors at the club. Most newspaper stories I wouldn't wipe my Arsenal with them and it seems the same with your def info......

0

TractorMan added 15:16 - Jan 26 The twitter account is a hoax. It was proven a few days ago!
0

casanovacrow added 15:28 - Jan 26 @wickedblue, the first part of your comment is what I'm getting at. We know Norris and McAuley play well here, we need to sort them out before thinking of getting others in. I am not in the contract discussions but Norris has been quoted as "not wanting stupid money" but not being near agreeing a deal with Ipswich, his and Keanes words in separate articles over the past few months. If he, Norris, doesn't think he's asking for stupid money its fair to suggest he will be wanting far less than Bullard gets - Bullard being on approx 4 times the wage of Norris currently using the higher end of our current wage structure using the 8k a week average. The financial situation at Hull also suggests they need a fairly high percentage of Bullards wage shifted. Yes my view is based on a lot of guess work but its an educated guess based on quotes from people involved not paper talk.

0

Blogs 297 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls