Manager Mick McCarthy has revealed that former Manchester United and Manchester City central defender Frederic Veseli trained with the Blues in Ireland last week. The 20-year-old from Switzerland, who was first mentioned in connection with Town last month, was released by the Red Devils at the end of last season, having joined them from their local rivals in January 2012.
Speaking after Tuesday's game at Crawley, McCarthy said strengthening his backline is currently his main focus: "I’m getting calls about lots of players they want to push to me and I keep saying that it’s defenders I’m looking for, quite clearly.
"We had Veseli, who was with us in Ireland. We’ve had Bongani Khumalo and we’ve had Dan Seaborne [training with us as well].
"I’ve only got five defenders, Elliott, Cressy, Tyrone Mings and my two stalwart centre-backs, Tommy and Chambo at the moment, so I need some more.”
Despite Veseli not having been involved against Shelbourne or in Tuesday’s friendly at Crawley, we understand that Town have not yet ended their interest in the FC Renens and FC Lausanne-Sport youngster.
McCarthy has made five signings this summer — with Waterford’s Jack Doherty looking likely to be the sixth — but the Blues boss wouldn’t be drawn on how many further additions to his squad he’s looking to make: "I need some more recruits quite clearly, but I’m not going to give you a number.”