Mick McCarthy has paid tribute to the progress made by Luke Hyam since he came to the club in November, the boss having picked the 21-year-old as the winner of this season’s Most Improved Player award. The Town manager sees players such as Hyam as the core around which his team will be built going forward.
McCarthy says he was in little doubt who should get the gong: "I think that award was an obvious one for me because when I came in for the first week’s training he wasn’t in the team. He’d been playing but I didn’t really know him. I knew we’d scouted him, looked at him when we were at Wolves, but I didn’t really know him.
"And I have to say, he didn’t knock my socks off in training on the first Thursday and Friday and [in the first match at Birmingham] I went with Nigel Reo-Coker and Guirane N’Daw, the experienced guys, which I thought was the right thing to do.
"Even in the weeks following on from that I didn’t see a lad that should have been nailed on, that should have been playing in the team.
"I saw a hard worker, he was industrious, getting about, but he just got better and better in the training sessions.
"There was some suggestion that he was always told he was a holding midfield player and he was to sit. I just think he’s blossomed since we’ve come in allowed him to get forward and enjoy his football a bit more.”
He says the former Northgate High School pupil made an immediate impression once he got into the side: "I think his first game for me was against Nottingham Forest and he was outstanding and he made a tackle in that game that changed the game early on. He clattered somebody and won the ball, he was great.
"He’s just got better and better to the extent that he’s penned in — ‘Luke Hyam’. There’s a few of them that have been penned in, as you can see, the team’s not changed much, and he’s been one of them.”
McCarthy believes Hyam will improve further: "I think there’s loads to come from him. We’re encouraging him to be more positive and get forward, get in the box, to shoot, to play forward and he’s embracing all that. He’s trying it all.
"He wants to do well, he’s a really positive player, positive person. He’s got loads to offer and I’m delighted with him.”
The Town boss says Hyam’s progress from initially being out of the side to becoming a regular illustrates that players are given a chance to impress him: "They’re in my plans if they’re good enough, they run around and they chase and they play and they want to train and they’ve got the right attitude.
"I’m no different from anybody else, I guess. I might be a bit more demanding than some people and less demanding than others.
"But realistically demanding; what can they give to me? What can they give to the team? Don’t ask people to do things they can’t do. But if I ask people to do things they can do, I ask them to do them well and not beneath the standards that they can do.
"Anybody that thinks that, they have to look at Luke and see how he’s played. He’s deserved to get in and the same with Frank Nouble, Frank’s got in because he’s played well.”
Nouble, signed from Wolves for £25,000 in January, is another who McCarthy feels has made more and more of an impression: "You could have put him down for the most improved player, although he hadn’t played that many games before he came in and had an impact.
"He’s not improved that much from when he played against Peterborough, it was a similar performance.
"He’s certainly made an impact and he’s a handful. He’s a young man who is learning his trade and he will get better.”
Overall, McCarthy believes the likes of Hyam, Nouble, Aaron Cresswell, Tommy Smith, Elliott Hewitt and others can form the basis of his squad going forwards: "I hope they do. Tyrone Mings as well, who is doing really well. I’m delighted with him.
"I’m delighted that we’ve got them and moving forward next season, providing we’re in the Championship, I’ll be delighted with them all.
"Certainly Cressy, Tommy, Chambo and AN Other right-back, although Elliott’s done well when he’s played.
"It’s up to him to prove that he can do it on a regular basis and have the same sort of results that the other five have had, including the keeper.”
McCarthy, who says he won’t talk about a budget with owner Marcus Evans until Town are mathematically safe, is positive about the future if he can add to the core of a squad he already has: "I’d be optimistic that we could compete if we can sign the right players with the base that we’ve got.
"Paul Taylor’s got to come back, David McGoldrick, Frank Nouble, they’re the ones that we would have.
"Woody, Luke Hyam and then there are others who are coming out of contract and there’s a lot of imponderables and whatever else might happen with those.
"I think we’ve got a solid base and I’d be optimistic if we can add some quality to that as well. Some players to add to it.”