Boss Mick McCarthy was pleased with trialists Bongani Khumalo, Dean Gerken and Dan Seaborne during the 2-1 friendly victory over Crawley.

The South African international started at centre-half alongside Tommy Smith and impressed the Blues boss: “I was pleased with Bongani, he’s certainly very quick and athletic and whatever he did, I thought he did OK, I was pleased with him.”

The 26-year-old is contracted to Tottenham until 2015 and McCarthy says the defender wouldn’t be a permanent addition to his squad: “We’re not looking to buy him, we’re looking at a possible loan deal.”

McCarthy says no decisions have yet been made on Gerken and Seaborne: “Not at all. And they might not want to come.

“Both of them wanted to get themselves fit and to train and to get back playing, get themselves a club.

“They’ve got other interests, and I’ve been looking at other players as well, so we’ll see. I think they’ve both done all right.”

Despite plenty of reports, he says no one has yet approached him regarding Aaron Cresswell: “I’ve not had a single solitary call, I’ve only heard what was in the newspapers.”

There have, however, been tentative enquiries regarding Michael Chopra, who was made available for transfer at the end of the season: “There’s been a slight bit of interest, clubs asking whether [they] might take him or we’d loan him out but nothing concrete as such. Testing the water.”

McCarthy’s former Wolves defender Christophe Berra was reported to be in talks earlier in the week and the Blues boss says he is someone who he would be interested in adding to his squad: “He’s a free transfer and he’s a really good defender Christophe.

"If I could sign him, I’d be delighted. Whether we can afford to sign him, because he’ll have other offers, he’s a good player.

“But I like him, I signed him, for heaven’s sake, I paid £2 million for him and he helped get us promoted and helped keep us up for two seasons as well.”

Photo: Action Images

TheHanwoodTractor added 23:30 - Jul 10 Glad the trialists are performing. Gerken would be good backup/competition for Loach. I wonder who enquired about Chopra.
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Michael11 added 00:06 - Jul 11 Pleased that the trialists are doing well. DELIGHTED that there may be interest in Chopra.
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Len_Brennan added 00:09 - Jul 11 Gerken & Berra would be good signings & I'd be happy enough with Khumalo on loan for the season, but I don't think Seaborne would add anything.to the squad. I.would prefer to have Mings & October on the bench than him. If Chopra was to leave, will Mick add another striker to McGoldrick, Murphy, Taylor, Nouble & Marriott? Probably not, wages best spent elsewhere on paying Berra or Stearman hopefully.

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budgieplucker added 00:09 - Jul 11 I suspect Mick wants to keep his options open as long as possible before making a decision on Gerken or Seaborne (and indeed Khumalo), my sneaky suspicion is that he still hopes he can do something with a loan deal for both Henderson & Stearman or raise some cash to buy one of them and clearly Berra is a main target at the moment.
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runningout added 00:20 - Jul 11 might be worth the powers that be, going for Berra.. would keep our decent CB's in check..
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pazelle added 01:06 - Jul 11 Khumalo as a loan player sounds ideal, we're thin at the back and these sorts of loans are decent - like a Kisnorbo type signing that keeps Smith and Chambers on their toes, got to sort out a keeper soon imo.
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floridaboy added 06:43 - Jul 11 Berra would not come here unless he was first choice so forget that one, unless he is going to play Chambers at right back which sounds daft to me
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SheffieldBlue1 added 09:41 - Jul 11 I don't know why Chambers at RB is daft. Stearman last season was primarily a CB that we played at Right Back, and just look at he performed. Whilst it's not ideal, it's definitely a viable option in my opinion.
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cooper4england added 11:07 - Jul 11 "What you talking about, Willis?"
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TownOnTheUp added 11:28 - Jul 11 I'd like to point out that Berra is left-footed, so if you want the left-foot/right-foot centre back pairing then he'd be cover for/first choice ahead of Smith. Otherwise, sure, play all three and put Chambers at right back, but I wasn't too impressed when he was shunted over there once or twice last season.
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MathieandMarshall added 12:32 - Jul 11 How about Berra, Smith & Chambers in a back 3 with Hewitt & Cresswell as wing backs? and a midfield trio of Skuse, Hyam, Wordsworth? ..... hang on, that wouldn't work. We have now signed wingers!! .... I give up. Mick is starting to put a squad together with options! I cant actually call the current "1st 11" ? - All quite exciting.
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bohslegend added 13:37 - Jul 11 I always look back on our last promotion season with a big smile (as I'm sure we all do) and in that season GB played mostly with a 3-5-2 shape that worked really well. We played nice football and we were tight at the back too. I remember when MM took over Ireland he attempted to use 3-5-2 but reverted to 4-4-2 for the competitive games. What do we think about 3-5-2?

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bohslegend added 13:37 - Jul 11 I always look back on our last promotion season with a big smile (as I'm sure we all do) and in that season GB played mostly with a 3-5-2 shape that worked really well. We played nice football and we were tight at the back too. I remember when MM took over Ireland he attempted to use 3-5-2 but reverted to 4-4-2 for the competitive games. What do we think about 3-5-2?

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theobald1985 added 13:59 - Jul 11 TheHanwoodTractor re chopra ive heard it was stowmarket town
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