Manager Mick McCarthy says loan trio Daryl Murphy, Jay Tabb and Guirane N’Daw all want to stay at Portman Road with the Blues boss keen to keep his current squad together for the 2013/14 campaign.
He says the likes of Richard Stearman, who still has another season left on his Wolves contract, Jay Tabb, whose Reading terms are up at the end of June, and Daryl Murphy, whose deal at Celtic is also up in the summer, will return to their clubs after Saturday’s final game at Burnley: "Stears will go back, Jay Tabb as well.
"I’ve had conversations with them all the time they’ve been here, but [whether we keep them] depends. Certainly the ones who are under contract, I can’t do anything about. The ones who are on Bosmans, I’ll be talking to them about that.”
He added: "I like them all and would like to keep my squad together, but they’ve got what they want to do as well.
"I know them all. Murph would like to stay, Tabby would like to stay and Guirane N’Daw would like to stay. It’s [a case of] satisfying all their needs, I guess. And I don’t know what they are as yet.
"But in terms of speaking to the players and getting their perspective on it, they all want to stay.”
Regarding the out of contract first team squad members — Lee Martin, Andy Drury, Arran Lee-Barrett and Jason Brown — he has begun the process of telling them who will be offered new terms and who will be released: "I’m speaking to them. I’ve spoken to a few today and I’ll speak to some tomorrow.
"I’m just glad that other than the result [on Saturday] and making our fans who come and watch us happy and doing it correctly, I can tell them.
"I don’t want to be bringing them in on Tuesday because the season’s finished. I don’t want to be calling them in and giving them the 'nine o’clock news' when it’s done. At least everybody will know what they’re doing by the end of this weekend.”
McCarthy says that with squad numbers limited, there may be players involved on Saturday who have been told they are moving on: "I’ve only got 20 players.
"It’ll all be given out as a retention list, I’m not going to be giving it out in dribs and drabs. And I'd like to think I won’t read it on Twitter!”