Central defender Tommy Smith says he’s yet to speak to manager Paul Jewell about his contract situation but would love to stay at Portman Road. The New Zealand international, back in the side in recent weeks, is one of 12 players whose deals are up at the end of the season.
Academy product Smith said: "I haven’t spoken to him yet about the contract situation. From my point of view I just want to stay in the team, do the best I can and hope that results improve. If they come to me [to discuss a new contract], they come to me.
"There is a bit of uncertainty and you want the security of knowing that you are going to be playing football again next season but first and foremost I just want to stay in the team and do as well as I can.
"If I do get a new deal, happy days. I want to be part of the first team plans and if I am I’ll be delighted to stay at Ipswich.”
In addition to Smith, Josh Carson, Grant Leadbitter, Jason Scotland, Lee Bowyer, Richard Wright, Mark Kennedy, Carlos Edwards, Ibrahima Sonko, Luke Hyam, Cody Cropper and Cormac Burke are all out of contract at the end of June.
Carson is expected to a sign a new two-year deal which includes the option of a third season soon, while Hyam was offered a one-year deal until the summer of 2013 last week.
Scotland, Bowyer and perhaps one or two others will trigger additional years on their contracts after a set number of league starts, in the Trinidadian’s case 19, his total currently standing at 16.
Meanwhile, Stoke manager Tony Pulis has revealed that former Town loanee Danny Collins is suffering from an injury, which may account for the Wales international not yet having moved on during the transfer window: "He's got a dead leg after Ricardo Fuller ran into him in training.
"He hasn't been able to train properly, that's been the problem with him, but hopefully he'll be training again soon.”
Bolton is understood to be the 31-year-old’s most likely destination but Pulis has played down the suggestion that Collins will definitely leave the Potters in January: "You are going to get speculation linking players with clubs at this time of year. There's nothing you can do about it."
Town are monitoring Collins’s situation, although boss Paul Jewell recently admitted that the defender would probably move to a club nearer to his home in Cheshire.
Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk