IPSWICH Town manager Paul Jewell now has bids in for THREE players at Portsmouth ahead of a potential fire-sale at the cash-strapped club.

With the south coast club facing a winding up petition over an unpaid tax bill of �1.6m – and possible liquidation – manager Michael Appleton has admitted he will almost certainly be forced to sell key players before the January transfer window closes next Tuesday.

And Jewell – desperate to strengthen his relegation fighting team following a disastrous run of eight points from 45 – is ready to take advantage of his Championship rival’s misery.

The EADT understands that Town, having had an improved bid of around �1.4m rejected by Pompey for centre-back Jason Pearce and versatile midfielder Joel Ward at the start of the week, made a third offer on Tuesday.

This time the amount was much closer to the �2m mark though and included a third – as yet unknown – player.

“I don’t want to name names, but altogether we’ve made bids for five players in the last week,” said Jewell.

“We’re looking to improve the team in a variety of positions. We know the squad needs help and we want to build for seasons ahead.”

The EADT understands that one of those five bids was for Crewe’s highly-rated 17-year-old Nick Powell, but that the League Two club want far more money than the Blues are willing to pay for the attacking midfielder.

“One of our offers has been rejected and we think that’s probably dead,” said Jewell.

“With one of the other offers we’re up against a couple of other clubs there. We made an offer on Monday which was rejected on Tuesday and we are thinking about upping the bid for that player.

“Again, it is a young player – one for the future.”

– More to follow