Boss Roy Keane says he’s delighted with the progress of 19-year-old striker Ronan Murray. The Town manager says he received loan enquiries regarding the Irish frontman but is happy that he decided to keep him at Portman Road.
Keane said: "We’re really pleased with young Ronan. We think he’s got a chance. We’ve had one or two offers for Ronan to go out on loan over the last month or two but I’ve been reluctant and I’m glad we’ve held on to him.
"When he comes on he affects the game, he comes on and does something, whether it was in the League Cup games or last week. He gets opportunities and the end product will come from getting more minutes on the pitch.”
The Blues boss says the Republic of Ireland U19 international links particularly well with Connor Wickham: "I think Connor and Ronan give us something different when they come on. They’ve got that young energy that we all used to have. It’s great, you can’t beat it.
"They’ve got good chemistry together and that’s because they played underage football together. That helps. Sometimes you get two strikers who have good chemistry without the staff necessarily working on it, it just happens.”
Keane even hints that Murray, who scored his first senior goal at Exeter in the Carling Cup, could soon make his full debut having made eight sub appearances so far: "He’s in the squad on merit and don’t be surprised to see him on the pitch at Sheffield United, whether that’s starting or coming off the bench.”
While Murray isn’t going anywhere, Keane says he’s weighing up loaning some of his other youngsters: "I’ve had some conversations with some of the younger boys. There’s no need for any of our senior players to go out, even those coming back from injury.
"The only people we might consider sending out on loan are some of the younger boys, maybe Jack Ainsley or Shane O’Connor, boys who we feel could benefit from going out and playing league football. Other boys like Troy and Luke there’s no chance, we’re holding on to them because of the games coming up.”
The Town boss says he is continuing to assess the loan market: "We’re always looking because there could be injuries round the corner. We’re always looking, it’s part of the game.”