Blues boss Paul Jewell is still hoping to add Leicester’s Republic of Ireland central defender Sean St Ledger to his squad before Wednesday’s visit to Birmingham. Keeper Alex McCarthy is set to complete his three-month loan deal from Reading today and will make his Blues debut at St Andrew’s.
St Ledger, 27, was recently transfer-listed at Leicester after a fallout with manager Nigel Pearson due to his lack of first team opportunities with the Town manager revealing his interest on Thursday.
Speaking after Saturday's game at Hull, Jewell said Town aren’t the only ones chasing St Ledger with unnamed clubs — one from Serie A, while Leeds are also claimed to be in the running — also having targeted St Ledger, who joined the Foxes from Preston for £1.2 million in the summer: "I’ve spoken to Nigel Pearson and I’ve spoken to the player’s agent and it depends on the player.
"There are a few clubs in for Sean. We’re in there and we just hope we can maybe get something done.”
He says Town and Leicester are still discussing a fee, perhaps implying the move might now be viewed as an immediate permanent switch rather than the loan with a view to a longer term deal initially mooted: "The chief execs are speaking, trying to thrash out a deal. We’ve got another player that we’re after as well, whether we can do both of them or not I’m not sure, but we certainly need to do one.”
The second player Jewell refers to is likely to be Reading goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, who is set to join the Blues on a three-month loan today.
With Damien Delaney suffering a recurrence of his foot injury at Reading and Ãvar Ingimarsson having left the club, the Blues boss admits that his defensive options are limited with Ibrahima Sonko and Tommy Smith the only fit centre-halves: "We’re desperately short [on central defenders] and we’ve got a tough game on Wednesday, but there’s still plenty of time to bring some players in.
"We were probably desperately short of centre-halves before the game. It’s an area where we need to improve and it’s one we’re trying to strengthen, I think everybody knows that. We have been trying to work since the window opened on bringing one, if not two, in.
"It’s always a difficult time at the start of the window because everybody is chasing the same types of player or a certain players and we’re not the only club interested in both players.”
Regarding exits, Jewell says there has been no interest and he doesn’t expect too many departures during the month: "I don’t see too many players going. We want to strengthen our squad, it needs strengthening. That doesn’t mean there won’t be any exits but I haven’t had any interest for anyone.”
Meanwhile, former Town central defender Troy Brown has joined League Two Aldershot on loan from Rotherham until the end of the season.
The Wales U21 international, who made his debut for the Shots in their 3-0 home defeat to Oxford on Saturday, opted for a move to the Millers in the summer despite having been offered a one-year deal by the Blues, but has made only four starts and two sub appearances, scoring one goal.
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