Town boss Roy Keane says he is confident that the Blues can hold on to star striker Connor Wickham during the January transfer window. Speculation regarding the 17-year-old’s future has continued in recent weeks with Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester United all said to be chasing his signature.
Despite this, Keane believes the Blues will be able to keep hold of their £10 million-rated prize asset when the window opens: "Yes, no problem there.”
The Blues boss says the England U19 international might have done enough to push his way into the Town first team for Saturday’s game at Nottingham Forest: "Connor did well the other night, young Murray did well the other night. We do give players opportunities and it’s up to them to take them. We’ll have a look at it.”
Keane has played down the likelihood of the Blues adding another striker on loan: "I didn’t say we were definitely going to go out and get a striker, what I said was that we’d keep our options open and if that’s an area where we continue to struggle, we’ll have a look at it.
"It’s not just about the strikers, particularly when we’re playing the one up front. We’ve got widemen, we’ve got midfielders. David Norris is doing well for us in terms of his goals, but we’ve got Andros and Carlos and other players who we feel are capable of scoring goals for us. We can't just be dependent on our strikers.”
The Town manager isn’t, however, ruling out the possibility of a further addition to his squad but says the Blues wouldn't be alone in wanting a quality frontman: "We’re always looking. If any half-decent striker becomes available, we won’t be the only club that might be interested in trying to get him. It’s the hardest position on the field to fill."
Meanwhile, Jason Scotland says he's targeting 15 goals this season, having netted four so far in his time with the Blues: "I'm happy enough with that but I could have had more.
"The gaffer has said that he's looking for me to get between 15 and 20 goals this season and I'll be disappointed if I don't achieve that.
"I scored goals at Championship level before with Swansea and I'm here to do the same with Ipswich."