FORMER Ipswich Town and England skipper Mick Mills believes Paul Jewell’s leaning towards “short-fix” solutions proved to be his undoing at Portman Road.

Jewell left the club early on Wednesday morning, in the wake of Town’s 2-1 home defeat to Derby County which dumped the Blues to the bottom of the Championship.

Having steadied the ship on his arrival in January 2011, the former Bradford boss endured a disappointing, first full season in charge at Portman Road and has only managed to pick up one league win this campaign.

Many of his signings, especially last summer, were considered failures, with the likes of Ivar Ingimarsson, Ibrahima Sonko, Lee Bowyer and Jimmy Bullard – after signing a permanent deal – failing to impress.

Mills believes such veterans represented short-term thinking and claimed that Jewell went back to type, after his switch to a longer-term vision and use of younger players failed to bring results on the pitch.

“Paul did a sound job initially, after Roy Keane left the club, and it is never easy to take control of any football club during the course of the season,” said Mills.

“But then he seemed to start going for short-fix solutions and while I understand people doing that, when those decisions go wrong it is the manager who is to blame.

“That did not bring the necessary results and the fact is, whatever he did to recover the situation was not going to work.

“He tried to change his philosophy in the summer, choosing a longer-term vision, and while I don’t think he panicked (when results were not going for the team), he changed his philosophy back again.”

While Mills believes Jewell made mistakes in the role, the former defender insisted the players had to take their share of the blame too.

“When I hear players say they play for the manager or play for themselves, I think they should play for the blue shirt as it is the club that pays their wages. They should put in a full day’s work in and a large number of players have not performed,” said Mills.

“It (Ipswich’s plight) hurts very much.

“When I joined the club (in 1966) we were in the second division but we had a very strong manager in Bill McGarry and he only had one philosophy, you had to work hard for the team.

“Everyone would like to get back to that but it is going to take time.”