Chief executive Simon Clegg says Town plan to offer midfielder Lee Martin a new contract this summer. The 25-year-old, who has said he’s keen to stay with Town and wants his future sorted sooner rather than later, has a year remaining on his current deal.

Clegg says he intends to approach the former Manchester United man with new terms, probably a three-year deal, during the close season: “Certainly, that’s the plan.”

Asked whether Andy Drury or any of the other players whose contracts are up in the summer of 2013 will also be offered new deals, the Town chief says these things are taken care of as a matter of course: “People out there think that suddenly we get to the end of the season and say ‘crikey, look who’s out of contract’.

“We are constantly on top of these things. The fans might not see that we are because quite frankly I don’t want to put it into the public domain who we’re speaking to and when.”

Along with Martin and Drury, Jimmy Bullard, Damien Delaney, Nathan Ellington, Arran Lee-Barrett, Jaime Peters, Ryan Stevenson, Joe Whight and Cormac Burke all have contracts which are up at the end of June 2013, while skipper Carlos Edwards and Luke Hyam recently signed new one-year contracts.

Over the last couple of years the Blues have lost big money signings David Norris (£2 million), Gareth McAuley (£1.1 million) and now Grant Leadbitter (£2.65 million) on Bosman free transfers after they turned down new contracts, a situation manager Paul Jewell says he doesn’t want replicated next summer and will look to sell players who are unwilling to commit to new terms. Norris joined Portsmouth, McAuley West Brom, while Leadbitter is believed to be on his way to Middlesbrough.

Clegg says that the other side of the coin is the significant cost of keeping those players, particularly with the Financial Fair Play rules coming in next season: “You also have to consider the implications of keeping some of those players on in terms of wages.

“There is a significant change to the wage structure and David Norris probably wishes he was still at Ipswich and had accepted the two-year offer he was made, but he was desperate for a three-year offer. Who’s lost out now?”

As for Leadbitter, who revealed his intention to leave the Blues at the end of his contract a week ago, Clegg says there were tentative talks about a new deal last summer: “We had some discussions but the bottom line is that he’s moved on. I’m grateful for the contribution that he’s made to the club.

“As Paul said, he’s a great pro and I’m sure that he will find a contract elsewhere. I’m sure that he has something lined up.”

Clegg points out that the Blues are far from the only Championship club to have seen players leave for free at the end of the contracts in the last couple of seasons: “Whilst people were giving us a hard time about Chuck and Gareth, I think people were quite surprised to see how many players were out of contract and were let out of contract by their clubs last summer. This is becoming much more the norm these days.

“Clubs aren’t committing to the longer term deals they were a few years ago because if it doesn’t work out, you’ve got to pay them off and it costs you a lot of money.”

Photo: Action Images

iamipswich added 13:53 - May 4 Worried.... already seemed obvious he was going to be offered a new deal. All this article suggests is that Clegg had a decision to make on whether or not to offer Lee a deal. This probably means he'll offer him a very mediocre contract which will be a fraction of what Martin will be looking for. This coming season he will be the same as leadbitter. We'll sometimes see articles suggesting he'll stay others which say his demands are 'financially beyond us' similarly to pretty much everyone in the world it seems according to PJ

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walberswick added 13:58 - May 4 Assuming Scotland, Jet and Cresswell are here next year?
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Keaneish added 14:01 - May 4 ...come on Towen! We need to start getting these sort of links in this window! http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17926967
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alex12345 added 14:03 - May 4 Some people on here are nothing short of stupid, they seem to think that offerin Lee Martin a contract is as easy as going from absolutely nothing to here's a £10,000 per week offer, Lee says yes and its done and finished and we all hear about it within the next day. I'm no expert on footballing contracts however i know that it takes a lot longer than that and there's alot of consultation and formalities that goes with it. I do however like Simon Clegg's witty stab at David Norris, Clegg's right though, I bet Norris wishes he stayed here now, who knows, could he possibly be back next year?

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buryblue77 added 14:08 - May 4 Alexharban, seriously can we please reserve this site and forum for intelligent debate. We are not better than everybody, as much as we all would like to see Ipswich dominate the world. All of us have ignored your comments until now, but I can't anymore. Positive or negative, sensible debate only please.
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Guthrum added 14:15 - May 4 buryblue77 - without a change of attitude, an improvement in morale and self-belief, where are the team going to get the fierce competitive edge to drive up the table? If the players took on the average attitude of those on here, they'd doom themselves to relegation from the first game of the season. Let's have some positive thinking!
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buryblue77 added 14:35 - May 4 Guthrum, but it's the same comment over again. Positivety goes a long way in winning football matches and there are a lot of moaners on here who wouldn't be happy even if we were better than everyone, I'm just bored of the comment, although I could just leave it alone and ignore it. Let's have some positive thinking and some sensibilty behind it.
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loobz66 added 14:43 - May 4 PJ, sign him up! (8)
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PunchNoHopers added 15:00 - May 4 According to Sky SPorts Pearce has joined Leeds from Portsmouth on a 4-year deal, so guess that is the reason he didn't want to come to us, as we wouldn't offer him any more than a 2-year contract at the most.
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SixtiesBlue added 15:05 - May 4 A major issue with Simon Clegg is he invariably gets the public relations so wrong. He may say that "We are constantly on top of these things," but the fans simply don't believe it. In that slightly patrician way of his, he'll say: "The fans might not see that we are because quite frankly I don't want to put it into the public domain who we're speaking to and when," but he fails to understand that fans don't expect to see every cough and spit of negotiation but would rather would like to be assured that he (and Town) are on the case. Reassurance and language which seemed to be much more human (and less him pronouncing from on high) would go a long way.

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Dozzells_Bobblehat added 15:20 - May 4 Hairbear - that awful coach seems to have got Martin playing pretty well to me.
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blueblood66 added 15:33 - May 4 On top of it..having a laugh Clegg
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Surco72 added 15:33 - May 4 Keanish i like your team but you would rather it to what ? What about Jaaskelienen for between the sticks ,hasnt played for a while and could still do a good job for us for a good few years yet ?
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BlueBailey24 added 15:35 - May 4 Need to sign him up. been awesome this season Guthrum - have to agree with Buryblue77 - it is the same comment over and over which is a little tedious, no? We clearly aren't better than everybody or we would be 1st in the prem. is getting a little boring......
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jas0999 added 15:45 - May 4 Good news. Martin is the right age and we should be building a team - not just for next season but beyond - around him, Cresswell, Drury and JET. However, if a deal can not be agreed we should cash in. Martin has been decent in the past year and a half - but we can ill afford to let yet another asset leave on a free. Over to Mr Clegg and Mr Jewell.
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TractorTrog added 16:09 - May 4 Ipswich24 added 12:35 - May 4 "Good What would people think of this as our team next season? Kushack Ward St Ledger Smith Cresswell Edwards Hyam Drury JET Martin Wickham Subs Lee Barrett Chopra Scotland Carson Delaney " I could add two maybe three prem names there...cant say at the moment but are midfield and defence players...would play chops and wickham though togehter....more attacking set up then switch to a 451 once we take the lead as wickham can play behind chops as well and gives us hight and physical presence in a CM role... along with Martin and Jet who scare the daylights out of defenders!!! COYB

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bluebud added 16:11 - May 4 “There is a significant change to the wage structure and David Norris probably wishes he was still at Ipswich and had accepted the two-year offer he was made, but he was desperate for a three-year offer. Who's lost out now?” What a garbage statement by Clegg...........suggests his wiseness all along as if he is so astute..........Pompey are the only Club which he could compare his performance too and be happy. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrghhhhhhhhhhh. The fact of the matter is Norris probably hasn't lost out at all.....after all he's had one signing on fee and another coming with obviously better wages. Clegg shouldn't be allowed to talk to reporters. I remember him slagging off norwich when he started saying they were tiny...........I thought at the time that was entirely pointless.....look what happened there.

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hairbear added 16:32 - May 4 #arc. All the talk is that we don't keep losing players for nothing, so if martin refuses a new contract then yes to receive a decent fee for him we would have to sell. #bobble. Read the post, martin has done very well 2nd half of the season but like the rest of the squad can't defend for toffee!
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alfromcol added 16:40 - May 4 bluebud Most people on here slag off Naaarwich, why pick on Clegg???
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Bergholtblue added 17:14 - May 4 Martin has been great player just behind Chopra, but goes missing when played out wide. If Wickham does go on loan, will his favoured position be available to him?
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righty added 17:24 - May 4 How stupid is Clegg Norris got a great big signing on fee and will probably get another one when he moves on again idiot
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h32 added 17:51 - May 4 Clegg once again proves he knows nothing about the business he is involved in - he would be better not to say anything at all.
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walberswick added 18:30 - May 4 Chelsea 5 Liverpool 1 ( Doni sent off Gerrard in goal)
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suffolklad added 19:11 - May 4 We will see,but I,m never confident in what comes out of Portman Road now.
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Blue041273 added 19:12 - May 4 The whole financial state of football is changing and Lee, like Leadbitter, will have a decision to make. There is no way his contract would be renewed on existing terms so he (or his agent) would need to weigh up all his options, both real and perceived. It would not surprise me if he adopted the same stance as GL and let his contract run down. We might then make him available for transfer but at this point in his contract his transfer value would be low and he might well be walking away for nothing this time next year. Incidentally does no-one else think that given the cost of bringing in Bullard, Bowyer, Murphy et al we actually shot ourselves in the foot by not giving Norris his 3 year contract. After all, if he had signed on for 2 years he would now be going into the final year and the whole wretched process would be starting again.

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