East Anglian local media have cropped up with reports that the teenage star that Paul Jewell has made a bid for in the last few days is Crewe’s 17 year old attacking wonder-kid, Nick Powell.
It is understood an initial bid has been laughed at by Crewe, and I do mean laughed at because not only is manager Steve Davis easily amused, but because even though such reports have been quick to roll out the “cash-strapped” affix when describing the league two club, there is no actual suggestion that they are in a position to open the till and print a receipt for their prized asset, and it does appear to be rather lazy.
Portsmouth defensive duo Joel Ward and Jason Pearce are also believed to lie at the heart of Jewell’s latest foray into the transfer market as a bid of more than £2million has been tabled for the pair, whilst Powell’s name has materialised as the third player to be taking Jewell’s fancy.
With Crewe currently on an upward curve with 5 wins in their last 9 under new manager Steve Davis and lying only 5 points off the play-off positions, the hierarchy at Gresty Road will have to be more rushed to sell than a desperate stock-broker on the FTSE 100 if they are to betray the optimism that has gathered at a fair rate of knots with every passing weekend since the post-Dario Gradi began in South Cheshire.
While Ipswich can dream of landing the highly rated Powell, who has become something of a talisman for Crewe this season having netted 6 times this season for the Alex and has dazzled crowds with his ferocious teenage talent, it would be as silly as a score of circus clowns for the Crewe board to entertain such a bid mid-way through a season where the new management team are looking to consolidate, or even achieve instant success, after years of decline for the Railwaymen.
To achieve that of course, they will need England under-17 talent Powell for the short team and to flog him after just breaking into the first team at Gresty Road would be nonsensical.
Crewe will inevitably have to relinquish Powell into the wilderness like they have done with the likes of Danny Murphy, Dean Ashton and the series of products that have travelled down the conveyor belt at the Reaseheath training complex like tins of beans at a Heinz factory, but to do so when the player is still learning the game would be misguided.
He is still a cub, so it looks like Ipswich’s predictable lets-throw-money-at-it-rather-than-produce-our-own trick that is sadly becoming increasingly common in top level clubs, will have to keep on dreaming for a little while longer.
@AdamGray1250
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