Town boss Mick McCarthy believes he has a much stronger squad at his disposal than he did going into the start of last season. The Blues manager has added Danish left-back Jonas Knudsen and on-trial pair Giles Coke and Larsen Touré to his squad in the last few days.
"I had a look at the team photograph from last year the other day and the names on it and thought that it does look considerably better now,” said McCarthy, whose side finished sixth last season.
"While I’ve got 17 players, 19 with the keepers, we’re trying to get 20, maybe 22 if we can, and I can hang my hat on them all, every single one of them is a proper Championship player, so it’s a nice feeling.”
The Town boss believes his team has - aside from the first half against Utrecht - been more comfortable in possession of the ball during pre-season, although says this may in part be due to the less competitive nature of friendlies.
"It’s pre-season and I’m not so sure that all the opposition are closing down and it’s all a bit tentative,” he added.
"But all along my beef with my team, with us, is to be better with the ball, all along, because we’re pretty good without it, we can go and get it back.
"They’re such great lads at working hard and competing, my mantra always is ‘Can we be better with the ball’. And I think we’ve proved that we probably can be.”
He says new left-back Knudsen showed those same qualities when the Blues were checking him out: "We wouldn’t have signed him, he wouldn’t have come in if he hadn’t.
"What the lads had seen on the Wyscout system and what I saw - he follows people in, he tackles, he competes.
"We thought sometimes he’s a bit over-keen to do it, but I prefer that. You can get people to temper it but if they don’t do it you can never get them to do it.”
As for the young Dane’s long throws, McCarthy said: "That’s an added bonus, I think we’ve got a good defender.”
In addition to Knudsen, McCarthy has decided to sign former Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Giles Coke, 29, and 31-year-old Guinean international winger or striker Larsen Touré following their trials.
McCarthy says Coke, who featured in the friendlies at Peterborough and Colchester as well as as a sub on Saturday, has settled in at the club very well.
"I knew Cokey anyway but he’s fitted in well and he’s another good person, a good bloke,” the Blues boss added.
"He’s fitted into the dressing room and the lads like him. I’ve been really pleased with him.”
The Westminster-born midfielder played youth football with QPR before moving on to Kingstonian, Mansfield, Northampton and Motherwell before joining the Owls in 2010.
While with Wednesday Coke spent time on loan at Bury, Swindon and towards the end of last season Bolton. He was released in the summer and was on trial with Blackburn prior to joining up with the Blues.
Touré, who featured briefly at Colchester and also came on as a sub against Utrecht, is a former team-mate of Kevin Bru’s with Levski Sofia.
The 31-year-old started his senior career with Lille and had spells on loan with Gueugnon and Grenoble before joining his hometown club Brest on a permanent basis in 2010.
Three years later he moved to Bulgaria and Levski where he spent a year alongside Bru before returning to France and playing with Ligue 2 Arles-Avignon last season with whom he made 21 starts and seven sub appearances, scoring five goals, while also picking up three red cards and six bookings.
The 6ft tall attacker has won six full caps with Guinea. His father, Mady Touré, also played football in France, for Brest and Orléans.
McCarthy says Touré junior is currently some way off peak condition: "He hasn’t done enough with his fitness, but I’m not worried about that. You can get players fit but at 31 you can’t turn them into good players.
"He’s fitted in with us, he’s one of my players - he works hard and he’s got good ability, definitely.”
No fan of friendlies, McCarthy says he and the squad are ready to finally get the campaign proper under way at Brentford next week.
"If I said no I’d be in serious trouble: ‘No, we could do with another two weeks of pre-season!’. No, we’re busting a gut to get going. I don’t want any more pre-season.”