Manager Mick McCarthy says new loan signing Jordan Graham gives him a different option as the Blues move towards the busy Christmas period of fixtures. The 18-year-old Aston Villa winger has joined Town on loan until January 4th and will go into the squad for Saturday’s trip to Charlton.
McCarthy says that although he already has plenty of wide players at his disposal, former England U16 and U17 international Graham isn’t quite the same: "He’s an exciting talent, he’s highly thought of. He’s been rehabbing from a bit of patellar tendinitis, which happens with kids coming through.
"He is an exciting prospect, he’s a proper winger. I think we’ve got wide midfield players but he’s one that more would probably go past somebody around the outside with his pace. It’s a good one for us coming up to Christmas with all the games that we’ve got.”
He says Coventry-born Graham caught assistant manager Terry Connor’s eye: "We’ve always got scouts out looking at games, at U21 matches, and TC had seen him at Arsenal with Steve McCall, so we know of him.
"We were just asking what we could get if we could get somebody in to change it. He was one that we liked and we decided to phone Paul [Lambert] and he’s quite happy for him because he thinks highly of him.
"If he can come down here and get in the team and get games it would be beneficial for the both of us.”
Primarily right-sided Graham will have to win a place in the side from the current incumbents, McCarthy says: "It was a bit out of the blue for Paul when I rang him.
"They like him, they think this will do him good and I’ve explained to Jordan, he’s not going to come in and get straight in the team, he’s got to get in the team and if he gets in the team and he’s the best, he stays in the team.
"That applies to everybody. But I think it’ll be good for him and good for Paul to have him in our first-team environment and travelling with us. And with the games that we’ve got there’s every chance he’ll get football at a higher level than the U21 league.”
The Blues boss has no doubt that Graham is ready for Championship football and believes he is currently more advanced than wingers of a similar age at Town, such as Jordan Adekunle and Jack Doherty: "He’s ready to play, I don’t doubt that at all.
"He’s got really good technical ability and pace. Having just met him, he’s a good physical specimen, as they all are. He’s fine, he’ll be OK to play.
"He is [ahead of Adekunle and Doherty]. If I’d got somebody in the building who I thought could do it, I wouldn’t go out and find somebody else. And that’s with the first team.
"I look at the first team and people ask me if I’m taking people on loan and I reckon I’d have to do really, really well to get players better than what I’ve got to come in. But this is somebody different that we haven’t really got in the building. If I’d got one, I wouldn’t have got anybody else.”
He says the addition of Graham will be Town’s only business before today’s 5pm loan deadline: "No, nobody coming in and nobody’s going out, as far as I’m aware.”
Photo: ITFC