how to build a telnet middleware server

This is what I came up (it is not working)

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
 use IO::Socket;
 use Net::hostent;              # for OO version of gethostbyaddr

 $PORT = 9000;                  # pick something not in use
$prompt="MA5680T>";

 $server = IO::Socket::INET->new( Proto     => 'tcp',
                                  LocalPort => $PORT,
                                  Listen    => SOMAXCONN,
                                  Reuse     => 1);

 die "can't setup server" unless $server;
 print "[Server $0 accepting clients]\n";

 while ($client = $server->accept()) {
   $client->autoflush(1);
   #print $client "Welcome to $0; type help for command list.\n";
   #$hostinfo = gethostbyaddr($client->peeraddr);
   #printf "[Connect from %s]\n", $hostinfo->name || $client->peerhost;
   print $client "\n";
   print $client "Warning: Telnet is not a secure protocol, and it is recommended to use Stelnet.";
   print $client "\n";
   print $client "\n";
   print $client ">>User name:";
   while ( <$client>) {
     next unless /\S/;       # blank line
    print "\nlinea :$_";

     if    (/quit|exit/i)    { last;                                     }
     elsif (/leo/i)    { printf $client "\n>>User password:";  }
     elsif (/password/i)    { printf $client "\n$prompt"; }
     else {
       print $client "\n$prompt";
     }
   } continue {
    #print $client $prompt;
   }
   close $client;
 }

Something is missing since I dont see any login attempt when forcing my client telneting to this “fake” server.
Im considering use telnetd server from some linux to manage login and session stablishment and then redirect recibed commands to my custom script …
Dont know how but I will try , any idea would be welcome.