Blues boss Mick McCarthy has revealed that Guirane N’Daw could be another of last year’s loan players returning Town on a permanent basis this summer. Daryl Murphy, Jay Tabb and David McGoldrick are already back at the club, while the Blues boss also hasn’t ruled out moves for Stephen Henderson and Richard Stearman.
McCarthy says he has talked to central midfielder N’Daw’s representative with the Senegalese international out of contract at parent club St Etienne this summer: "I spoke to his agent and we’ll just wait and see.
"We’ve got Anthony Wordsworth, we’ve got Luke Hyam, we’ve got Cole Skuse and Tabby can play in there, although he played wide for us and was exceptional, I thought.
"We’ll wait and see what my budget allows me to do. There’s a budget that I can get certain players in and I want to get them in and make sure I get the right squad together.”
One free agent McCarthy says he isn’t targeting is his former Wolves striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake: "Sylvan I bought from Plymouth and he was fantastic, but I think he might have offers from the Premier League on a free transfer. He ought to have, to be honest.”
The Town boss played down his interest in defender Kirk Broadfoot, who is out of contract at Blackpool, and Wycombe winger Joel Grant: "We get the list, like everyone else does, of free transfers and we look at them all. But there’s nothing happening with them, no.”
Whether that means nothing will happen in the future remains to be seen. McCarthy says there are no trialists currently with his squad but that pre-season is still in its early stages: "It’s the first day and if something happened and we could take somebody with us [to Ireland next week], then maybe I would, if there’s somebody that was available and who would come.
"There’s none coming in here this week. The first week is not conducive to having a trialist in. We could see how he can run around a 400-metre track, but you could probably all do that.
"And the ballwork is not really full tilt competitive football for the first week, maybe in the second week we’re getting there. To have anybody in it’s better later on in pre-season, so we can see them playing.”
McCarthy is taking his time over making further additions to the squad with too many players not yet having adjusted their wage requirements to the new reality of Financial Fair Play: "We’re still looking. I’ve not been in any great hurry to do it, mainly because the right deals haven’t been there.
"I think there are going to be a lot of players surprised, a lot of players out of work starting today. I know there are already.
"People are waiting for the deal that they think is there, but the Financial Fair Play rules are certainly having an effect in terms of signing players.
"I haven’t seen anybody really do anything yet, nothing of any significance. I keep hearing that this one’s going here, there and everywhere, but it’s not happened.
"We’ll wait and try and make sure we get the right deals. I’d like them to be with us before we go to Ireland, but if not what I have got is a really good nucleus of a team that I kept from last year. If we can add and change a few, that would be great. We’ll just keep trying to do it.”
The Town boss wouldn’t be drawn on the number of signings he wants before the season starts on August 3rd: "There’s not a chance that I’m giving you a number on that one!
"I did that once and then as they were ticked off it was ‘He wants six more, five more, four more… you’re still four short, still three short!’.
"We’d like to get some more but the nucleus of it is really good because the majority of the team that are here, that are still here, were the team from the end of last season.”
As long as the new signings are in before the start of the season he says he’s not particularly concerned when they arrive: "The thing is, the ones who are at clubs, or even if they’re on Bosmans, they’ll be training somewhere, they’ll find themselves [somewhere to train].
"I’ve just seen our lads, they’re about 90 per cent ready to go, so if we sign somebody at the end of July they’ll still be ready.”
In terms of players moving out, he says there has been some interest in transfer-listed duo Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Michael Chopra, but nothing concrete as yet: "A little bit. But let’s clear it up, nobody’s going to pay wages through May, June and July when the season starts on August 3rd.
"Anybody who wants them is going to wait until the last knockings to take them. There’s been a bit of interest in both of them, but we’ll wait and see what happens.
McCarthy says there have been no approaches for anyone else, as far as he is aware: "To my knowledge, there hasn’t been any interest in my players, but who’s to know between now and the season starting?”
Meanwhile, former Blues striker Jon Stead, 30, has rejoined his hometown club Huddersfield on a two-year deal after leaving Bristol City at the end of last season.