Assistant manager Terry Connor says there could be developments on the swap deal which would see Jay Emmanuel-Thomas move to Bristol City and Paul Anderson join the Blues over the weekend. Discussions between the clubs have been ongoing for more than a week.
Emmanuel-Thomas was missing from the Town squad which travelled to Ireland and Connor confirmed that that was due to the proposed switch: "It was only fair that we didn’t prejudice anything in terms of his move to Bristol City, so we felt it was best for him to stay and do some work back at the training ground and be ready for whatever happens this week.”
Regarding any recent progress on the deal, he added: "Not that I know of. I’ve been over here so I’ve not got [to know] everything, but when I spoke to the gaffer yesterday he said everything was moving along fine and we should hear something over the weekend.”
Connor says he will speak to manager Mick McCarthy about trialists Dean Gerken and Dan Seaborne, but wouldn’t comment on the chances of the duo being offered contracts having trained with the Blues in Ireland and played the second half of the victory over Shelbourne: "That’s not for me to say.
"They’ve been good enough to come across to Ireland and they’ve worked all week at our training camp and they’ve done ever so well for themselves as individuals, they’ve played their game today. We’ll report back to the gaffer on Monday and we’ll take it from there.”
He says they could be involved in Wednesday’s friendly at Crawley: "Depending on the conversation we have with the gaffer, depending on the conversation he has with the players as individuals, hopefully we’ll see them on Wednesday.”
Regarding striker Paul Taylor, who was left behind in Suffolk, Connor says the camp came too soon for him as he continues his comeback from his long-term foot injury: "He just wasn’t quite ready for the trip. He’s still trying to get to the point where he can take contact in training.
"The way that we were going to work this week in particular ruled that out really, so it was probably more prudent for him to stay at home and do some more strengthening work with the physios back there.
"Hopefully when we get back he’ll be another week further on and we can start using him more in the group.”