Crystal Palace assistant boss Mick Jones has admitted that financial considerations played a part in his club allowing Stern John to join the Blues on loan. Earlier in the season the Eagles were handed a transfer embargo after failing to make a payment due to Town as part of the £600,000 they agreed to pay for Alan Lee in the summer of 2008, and were unable to pay their players at the beginning of this month.
cpfc.co.uk
Last week we made the decision to send Stern out on loan to Ipswich. I am not going to insult anyone's intelligence by saying it was not about money, because a part of it was.
But the other part of it is that it is going to give Stern some really good games. So far this season he only played a bit part role, which is not good for Stern. Half an hour here and there won't benefit someone of his experience and age.
What we need him to do is go to Ipswich and get right back into what I call 'cutting edge fitness'. People talk about players needing match fitness, which is true, but I think strikers have to have a cutting edge to be effective, so hopefully he will come back with that cutting edge.
We also had the option of sending Matt Lawrence out on loan to Southend but it fell through because their financial situation is also not in a good condition. So they were the only two that had options of going out and Stern's move was successful.
But we are happy to send him to a club like Ipswich. He has worked with Roy Keane before, they know each other and that was a big factor in Roy's decision to come in for Stern, plus Stern wanted to go as well which is something I feel is important to make clear.
He knows that we have some strong competition in our forward line at the moment and he is only got to limited chances.
But that can change overnight. I have been in football long enough to know that when things are going right, something will go wrong whether you like it or not - that is the nature of the industry. Because of that we hope that Stern will come back to us in really good condition so he is ready for his chance when it comes, and I think he will because he is going to get regular football there.