Manager Mick McCarthy says it will be owner Marcus Evans’s call to decide whether offers received for his players will be accepted ahead of the closure of the transfer window on Monday at 11pm. Yesterday, the Blues boss said he hoped his phone wouldn’t ring ahead of the deadline, while centre-half Tommy Smith was linked with a possible move to Crystal Palace.
"I’m not in a position to accept a bid or to turn one down,” McCarthy said. "You’d have to speak to Marcus about that, whether there’s a value on anybody.
"That’s Marcus’s call, absolutely, it’s not [down to me]. Mine would be no, absolutely no. And I think that’s the same with Marcus.”
McCarthy, who said yesterday that there could be an addition to his squad on loan before the window closes, is keen to add to the numbers at his disposal and hopes to have injured pair Stephen Hunt and Cameron Stewart back for the Millwall game in a fortnight.
"I’d like Hunty back and I’d like Cameron Stewart back as well, two of the players who haven’t been available to me," he added. "That would be a really good start. I’d like reinforcements but nothing’s going to happen between now and Saturday.”
He says that with loanees still available and free agents such as Jack Collison and Darren Ambrose - who play for Town’s U21s on Monday - up for grabs the closure of the transfer window isn’t particularly significant.
"While we’ve got those [options] there’s no need to panic and I think that when Premier League teams get their squads together eventually, that’s the time that they’ll loan somebody out.”
Regarding Collison and Ambrose, he says he’s been pleased with what he’s seen of them in training: "They’ve both trained well, both look fit but it’s a different ball game playing 90 minutes on a big pitch.
"But they’ve both done OK. Neither of them look out of place in training, that’s for sure.”
Collison, who was released by West Ham last summer, and former Blue Ambrose, who left Birmingham at the end of last season, will play in Monday's U21 match against Sheffield Wednesday at Portman Road (KO 7pm).