Jewell said: "We have made a bid for a player, it's a serious bid and a big one, but I think it has been turned down.
"We're now waiting for them to come back to us and I really don't want to say too much more about it.
"I've said we need three more players in to bolster the squad and give us even more competition for places.
"We will continue to try to do that in time for the first game of the season in just over a fortnight."
The highly-rated 22-year-old is equally at home in the centre of defence or midfield, and is also interesting Aston Villa, Charlton and Everton.
Jewell has so far brought four new signings to Latics – Mike Pollitt, Pascal Chimbonda, Ryan Taylor and Stephane Henchoz – and the quartet
featured against Preston.
Lee McCulloch was on target with an early goal but Scotland team-mate Brian O'Neil levelled in the 21st minute.
Jewell wasn't happy with the performance, with the non-existent marking for
Preston's equaliser particularly annoying him.
But on the other side of the coin, he was pleased to give a number of the squad a run out in a competitive encounter.
He said: "We still have loads to work on, that is for sure.
"Pre-season matches are hard to judge and you can sometimes go overboard one way or another about them.
"There were things that pleased me and some things things which displeased me, but I'd rather keep that to myself.
"This was our first proper game since Reading in May – we played two games in Denmark last week but were never extended.
"We came out of it with no injuries, Henchoz got half an hour to improve his fitness while Pollitt, Chimbonda and Taylor made their debuts.
"I know it was only a friendly, but they've now got that out of the way and can say they've played a competitive game for us.
"Coming here to play Preston was never going to be easy.
"I was pleased with our goal which showed a lot of good movement but their goal was a joke as far as we were concerned.
"You can't give free headers away at any level, and if we do that in the Premiership and go behind, we're unlikely to come back.
"We have to take responsibility and I want people doing their jobs, not holding their hands up afterwards and apologising.
"To be perfectly honest these friendly matches bore me to death, but they are obviously important as far as fitness is concerned.
"There's no edge to them, and that is a major part of the game."
The next run out for the first team squad is at Macclesfield Town on Saturday, while a reserve side visits Burscough tonight.