PAUL Jewell’s work under the transfer radar could be about to claim its second big success story of the summer.

The Town boss has already swooped for highly-rated Welsh Under-21 right-back Elliott Hewitt, a teenager who had been courted by Premier League clubs during last season.

Now Jewell, who has kept his summer dealings close to his chest since the end of last season, is stepping up his pursuit of Nottingham Forest skipper Luke Chambers on a free transfer.

The centre-back will become a free agent on Sunday and could be unveiled as an Ipswich Town player before the squad reports back for pre-season training next Thursday.

A 26-year-old, approaching 400 competitive appearances, and a Forest player of the year two seasons ago should not be sniffed at and will be seen by many Town fans as a key piece of next season’s jigsaw.

While Jewell continues to remain tight-lipped until a target puts pen to paper, we understand he is confident of landing his man having closely monitored Chambers in recent weeks.

The defender fell out of favour with Forest fans last season after publicly questioning their decision to boo their under-performing team and has since seen his hopes of remaining at the City Ground clouded by the club’s mysterious takeover bid.

Keen to get his future sorted, Chambers appears willing to make the switch to Suffolk with Forest boss Steve Cotterill understood to have already accepted that he will lose his skipper and the defender himself getting his team mates to sign a Forest shirt for him at the end of last season.

At least one new centre-back is a top priority for the Blues boss who currently just has left-footed duo Damien Delaney and Tommy Smith as options, with the latter in danger of missing the start of the season due to his Olympic involvement.