Town boss Mick McCarthy says he wants on-loan Barnsley defender Paul Digby to join the Blues on a permanent basis in the summer. Digby moved to Portman Road in January and has made two FA Cup starts and three sub appearances in the Championship.
McCarthy says the 21-year-old, who has another season left on his contract at Oakwell but with the proposed terms of a free transfer agreed when he signed on loan, has made great strides since moving to Suffolk.
The former England U19 and U20 international operated largely in central midfield until joining the Blues but McCarthy has played him as a centre-half both for the Town U21s and in his senior games.
"He’s done very well and my thoughts are that I’ve spoken to him, and I would like to do something with him and take him on in the summer,” the Town boss confirmed.
In addition to first-team regulars Tommy Smith, Christophe Berra and skipper Luke Chambers, still viewed primarily as a central defender despite having played at right-back for much of his career, the Blues have four centre-halves currently out on loan.
Summer signing Piotr Malarczyk is at Southend, Matt Clarke is at Portsmouth, Josh Yorwerth at Crawley and Joe Robinson at Woking.
"We’ll have to do something about that, we can’t take them all going forward,” McCarthy admitted. "But Diggers is a promising young centre-back, who can use the ball from the back and I think has really impressed.
"He’s improved, there’s no doubt, training with the first-team squad every day, and he’s starting to impress everybody.”
Malarczyk joined Southend at the start of last week for the remainder of the season but is yet to feature, however, McCarthy says it’s not his place to pick other people’s teams.
"Phil Brown took him in good faith, he wanted a centre-back but it’s down to him to pick his team, nobody could ring me up and say, ‘You’ve got to play him’, it doesn’t work like that.
"I know Phil, he’s a pal of mine. I’d much prefer it if he was playing, but it’s Phil’s team, not mine.”