Blues boss Mick McCarthy has confirmed that he is interested in signing striker DJ Campbell on a permanent basis in January. Yesterday, the frontman, who is on loan from QPR until January 5th, said he would be interested in joining Town full-time but not extending his loan.
McCarthy said: "DJ on a permanent deal? Yes, of course. But he’s QPR’s player. I go against what I normally believe in talking about other people’s players, but DJ’s said it — he doesn’t want to come back on loan. So, if that’s the case...
"I would have been interested in him anyway, he’s done very well,” he added.
The Town manager admits that Mark Hughes’s sacking by the Premier League’s bottom club this morning won’t make doing a deal for the 31-year-old, who is out of contract at the end of the season, any simpler: "It’s complicated. You don’t know who might take charge of them, they might look to bring him back himself.”
In terms of targets ahead of yesterday’s deadline, McCarthy says he asked about Richie Wellens but he felt Leicester wanted to keep him: "I don’t think Leicester wanted to let him out, I didn’t get a definitive [answer], whether it was about him wanting to come or them letting him out.
"They need their squad and I think they looked at Richie and thought he could be playing in their first team, he’s good enough, but they’re doing well at the minute, as we’ve seen.”
He says no other deals came close to being completed: "No, we couldn’t take any more loans.”
In terms of players going out, there was interest in Jason Scotland but it came to nothing: "A few asked about him, he’s still here training with us this morning and he’s in the squad for tomorrow.”