Boss Mick McCarthy says both he and owner Marcus Evans have realistic expectations for the season ahead. The Town manager has said he’s aiming for a play-off place having achieved that level of form last season having taken over in November.
McCarthy said: "Marcus is the same as me, he wants to aim for as high as we possibly can but I think, like me, he’s realistic about it as well.
"It’s easy me coming in and saying ‘We’re aiming for the top six’. Of course we’re aiming for the top six, but there’s a bit of graft to do that though.
"We played at our absolute maximum from November and we know that the points would have got us in the top six. But we’ve got to do it again.”
The Town boss says he and Evans are similarly in agreement regarding their work in the transfer market: "I’m happy with the squad that we’ve got. I know Marcus is delighted with the business that we did in the summer.
"To be fair, we’ve maintained the team [from last year], bar two players. I would love to have to have signed Richard Stearman but we couldn’t do it and we lost Guirane N’Daw.
"And after seeing Cole Skuse and Luke Hyam, that’s been a real plus that midfield pairing. They’ve been terrific.
"Richard’s got a year’s contract left. All the others that we took were all Bosmans. It was just a deal we couldn’t do between us and Wolves, simple as that.”
Overall, McCarthy says neither he nor Evans will be putting undue pressure on anyone: "We should be up there competing and that’s Marcus’s ambition as well.
"But neither of us are that stupid that we’re going to put demands on everybody that we have to be there, right at the very start. It’s a slow burn and we just want to make sure we have a good season.”
Meanwhile, the Blues boss confirmed that Josh Carson is still on trial with Bristol City: "As far as I’m aware. They’re obviously taking a good look at him.”