IPSWICH Town are to take steps to ensure that teenage hotshot Jordan Rhodes does not go down the same path as Dean Bowditch and Billy Clarke.They want to ensure that 18-year-old Rhodes continues his current progress and become a regular in the Blues side for years to come.

Elvin King

IPSWICH Town are to take steps to ensure that teenage hotshot Jordan Rhodes does not go down the same path as Dean Bowditch and Billy Clarke.

They want to ensure that 18-year-old Rhodes continues his current progress and become a regular in the Blues side for years to come.

Both Bowditch, soon to be 22, and Clarke, 20, also hit the first team scene with a bang as raw teenagers and both were predicted to have glittering futures.

Bowditch did not play in a single Town senior game last season and his Portman Road future is in the balance as his contract ends on June 30. He faces critical talks with Blues boss Jim Magilton to decide his future.

Clarke, made available for transfer yesterday, was a valuable member of the Ipswich side in the opening weeks of the 2006/07 campaign, but has faded away badly and is ending this campaign on loan at Falkirk mainly sitting on the bench.

Ipswich don't want Rhodes, who made eight substitute appearances last season and scored one goal, to fall away in the same way.

Technical skills coach Steve Foley, who spends much of his time developing young players, said today: “We can get excited by young players and build them up.

“They can believe their own publicity at a tender age and the limelight can come too early.

“It is us coaches job to keep the lads' feet on the ground, and this is what we are doing with Jordan.

“The manager says that he will be bringing players in during the summer, but we must not close the door on our promising youngsters.

“Danny Haynes has shown what can be achieved b y some extra work on the training ground and he has come on in leaps and bounds over the last couple of years.”