Boss Mick McCarthy has confirmed that he tried to re-sign former loanee Ryan Tunnicliffe — who is back at Portman Road with Wigan today — before he joined the Latics on a similar basis last month.
TWTD revealed that the Blues were attempting to bring the 21-year-old back to Portman Road after his previous spell had been cut short when parent club Manchester United sold him to Fulham on transfer deadline day.
"I did,” McCarthy said. "I enquired and Wigan enquired and I guess they were flying. I’ve no bad feelings towards him.
"He maybe thinks that they’ve got a better chance of going up, and they have got a better chance because they’ve got more points than us and two games in hand.
"And they’ve got a bigger and stronger squad than we’ve got, to be fair. It’s a squad that’s been added to. And he’s from the North-West anyway.”
McCarthy was delighted with the former England U17 international’s performances for the Blues during the first half of the season: "Tunners is a good player. It was strange that he left us and then ended up leaving Manchester United to go to Fulham.
"He could have come back here and he’s gone to Wigan on loan. Who could have predicted that when he was playing for us two or three months ago?
"His contribution here was really solid and vital for what we were doing and I’ve a lot of time for Tunners.”