Manager Mick McCarthy says he has an idea which of his out-of-contract senior players he wants to keep at the club beyond the end of the season, but is still to talk to any of them regarding new deals.
Lee Martin, Andy Drury, Arran Lee-Barrett and recent signing Jason Brown all have terms which are up in June, while Daryl Murphy, Guirane N’Daw, Richard Stearman, Jay Tabb, Reece Brown, Aaron Mclean and Patrick Kisnorbo are all on loan until the end of the season. David McGoldrick is still at the club despite his 93-day loan being up and is set to sign a two-year deal in the summer.
McCarthy says he has plans in mind: "I’ve got a good idea of who I want to keep and what I want to do, but they’ve also got an idea of what they want to do, and not playing in League One is one of them.
"So, there’s a bit of motivation for them all to pull their finger out — make sure they’re negotiating as Championship players.”
Those negotiations have not yet begun with McCarthy keen to have Town’s survival confirmed before doing so: "I’m not talking to them now.”
The Blues boss has already told youngsters Ronan Murray, Jack Ainsley, Joe Whight, Cormac Burke and Gunnar Thorsteinsson — who is set to sign a two-year deal with Hermann Hreidarsson’s ÃBV in Iceland — that they will not be kept on when their current deals are up in the summer.
McCarthy hopes they’ll ultimately prove him wrong, but warns that he doesn’t recall making too many serious errors of that type: "I’ve not released many that have gone on to embarrass me completely, but I hope they do. I don’t release players who I think are good enough for the team, that’s for sure.
"At their ages and at their time of development, they’ve got to go and play for somebody, whoever it might be.
"Me signing them and sending them out on loan is not right either. You don’t develop as a loan player, you’ve got to go and play somewhere that’s your club, your shirt, where points are played for. Not U21 football, I’m not a fan of the U21 league personally.
"They’ve got to go and play for someone. I’m not bothered where it is, go and play professionally, or even semi-professionally, at any level and have a career at it and play 300 or 400 games and then you’ve been a footballer. That’s my view on it.”
Meanwhile, McCarthy was back at his old club Millwall on Tuesday night to watch the Lions take on Sheffield Wednesday, who the Blues face at Hillsborough a week on Saturday.