Boss Paul Jewell says his summer recruitment plans are already well under way and has outlined the areas of his squad he will be looking to augment between now and the start of 2012/13 on Saturday 18th August.
Jewell says he’s already talked to clubs and potential signings: "We’ve spoken to players who are out of contract. We’ve spoken to clubs who’ve got players under contract.
"The plan doesn’t start after the Doncaster game, it’s already started. You never have a nice summer holiday, sometimes you almost work as hard as you do when the games are on because you’re never off the phone trying to get players in.”
Even before knowing whether midfielder Grant Leadbitter will stay — the pair are due to talk today — the Blues boss outlined the positions he is seeking to strengthen: "We’re looking for a goalkeeper, some central defenders, as we’ve only got Damien and Tommy at the club, so we need a couple more at least, we need another midfield player and another forward.
"Everyone talks about the spine of the team and that’s where we’re looking. And around that there may be one or two utility players coming in, someone who can play both positions at full-back, that’s what we’re looking for.”
Jewell says that like all bosses he wants signings in as soon as possible but admits that in reality this rarely happens: "I think every manager would like all the players in by the first day of pre-season, but it never works that way.
"But it’s important to try and get ahead of the game sometimes and we want to move quickly. I’m not confident [that that will be the case], but that’s what we want to do.”
He says season-long loans from the Premier League will form part of his plans: "That’s one route that we’re looking at. The problem is getting in quickly. I spoke to a club yesterday about a couple of their young players and the queue’s a mile long.
"I think taking players on a year’s loan is different from taking a goalkeeper who has to go back. It’s getting the time to ask the managers right - you look at the results on a Saturday and then make the call or don’t make the call.”
The Town boss dismissed reports that exiting Derby midfielder Paul Green has agreed to join the Blues: "I know Greeny, I signed him for Derby on a free transfer from Doncaster. He did fine, but he’s not one we’ve enquired about.”