Blues boss Paul Jewell says he’s well aware that fans are probably becoming fed up of hearing that he’s targeting new central defenders. The Town manager has spent the summer trying to add to his defensive ranks, but so far unsuccessfully with plenty of other clubs chasing the same targets.
Matthew Upson, Jonathan Woodgate (both now at Stoke), Sean St Ledger (now Leicester), Daniel Ayala (Norwich) and Ryan Shotton (reportedly joining Burnley from Stoke) are just some of the central defenders Jewell has either enquired about or made bids for this summer.
Ãvar Ingimarsson, currently out with a thigh injury, joined on a free transfer from Reading earlier in the summer, but with Troy Brown (Rotherham) and Tom Eastman (Colchester) joining Gareth McAuley (West Brom) in leaving the club over the summer, the Blues were left very short of cover.
Ex-Stoke and Reading man Ibrahima Sonko says he’s the latest man to have been targeted by the Blues with Jewell probably wanting two more centre-halves to add strength to his squad.
The Blues manager admits that the situation must be becoming as frustrating for fans as it is for him: "I’m sure the supporters are fed up with me saying it.
"Everyone knows that centre-half is one of the areas of the team where we need strengthening but everybody’s looking for the same ones and we can’t get them.
"But we will continue to try and improve it because we have to improve on [Tuesday]. I’m hoping we might have some new players for the weekend.”
He says the situation is partly down to Premier League clubs wanting to keep hold of their players until they know what their squads will look like at the end of the transfer window: ”We’re really desperately trying to get players in.
"I know why [it’s proving hard], it’s because the Premier League teams are seeing the window out. We might have to bite the bullet for a couple of weeks, not that we want to, but we might have to.”
The Blues boss says one of Town’s main failings against Southampton was much the same as was all too evident towards the end of last season: "It was the same old problem, the same old Achilles’ heel, the way I see it, is there. Look at a couple of their goals, they came from our attacks - the same as on Saturday, the same as last season.
"We know there’s a lack of pace in the team, that’s obvious, and it’s something which is my job to address.
"I thought we were making progress, but [Tuesday was] a rude awakening for some people. This is a long old season and we need to improve otherwise it’s going to be longer than that.”