Blues boss Mick McCarthy says Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has impressed him both in training and in the 5-1 reserves victory at Spurs last Wednesday, in which the 21-year-old scored twice.
McCarthy said: "I’ve seen somebody who is wanting to try and learn and is trying to do what Terry and I are asking of him, putting him under pressure to be the type of player we’d like to see.
"When he came on in the second half at Bolton he did really well. He played up front on his own at Spurs and I thought parts of his game were excellent.”
Another young player who has caught McCarthy’s eye is Tommy Smith, who has fought his way into the starting XI since the change of manager at Portman Road.
The Blues boss said: "Tommy’s been excellent, whoever he’s played against. I’ve been really pleased with him. The fact that he went and played in China was the reason I left him out [at Leicester], but he’s been excellent.”
McCarthy was also a central defender during his playing days but says he’s not yet given the 22-year-old New Zealand international too much private tuition on playing the role.
"I’ve had a couple of chats with him but we’ve just worked with him and talked to him and put the team together,” he said.
"We’ve had loads of games which makes it difficult to do any defending work. We did in the free week that we had. I like Tommy and I think he’s a really solid defender.”