Town boss Mick McCarthy doesn’t expect to make significant changes to his squad but will bring in some new signings and will give on-loan youngsters such as Matt Clarke, who has spent the season with Portsmouth, a chance to prove themselves in pre-season.
"There’s still going to be 15 or 16 of the squad that’s around,” McCarthy said. "We will lose some, I’m saying that but that’s dependent on conversations with players in terms of what they want, what we can offer, what we want to do.
"There’s not going to be a massive change to it, but we do need to bring some fresh bodies in because it always gives it a lift and a bit of a spark for everybody.”
Clarke, 19, has spent the season with Pompey, while fellow centre-half Josh Yorwerth, 21, has been at Crawley for much of the season and U21s skipper Joe Robinson, another 19-year-old central defender, has recently been on loan with Vanarama National League side Woking.
"Certainly Clarkey’s done really well when we’ve had him watched and I thought that would be the case,” McCarthy said.
"We’ve watched Josh Yorwerth as well at Crawley in a different team. Portsmouth have been flying high so it’s easier to play in that side, but having said that if you’re a defender and you’re mid-table to bottom then you get plenty of work to do.
"I’ve seen Josh and he’s done OK, whether that’s going to give him the platform to be in our first-team or not I don’t know.
"But Clarkey, he’ll come back, we’ll take them back in pre-season and we’ll look at all of them that are been out on loan, the ones we’re thinking may well be [in next season’s squad].
"He has to come back in pre-season and make sure he’s fitter, stronger, looks the part, plays in the pre-season games.
"I won’t be doing any loaning him out before that. I want to see if he can play in the first team.”
In addition to youngsters Clarke, Yorwerth and Robinson, the more senior Cameron Stewart has spent much of the campaign at Doncaster, and is available for a permanent move despite having a year of his contract remaining, while Polish defender Piotr Malarczyk is with Southend until the end of the season.
Regarding Liam Feeney, who is on loan with the Blues from Bolton and is out of contract at the end of the season, and Kevin Foley, who signed a short-term deal until the end of the season, McCarthy says he will be speaking to them about their futures.
"Both of them have done well,” he said. "They’re both in the building and I’ll be having a conversation with them both.
"Both players though will have their own ideas on what they want, what they want to do, what they want to achieve and we’ll have our ideas as well. But both of them have done well, I’ve been pleased with them.”
Ben Pringle is on loan from Fulham for the remainder of the season and has another year left on his Cottagers deal.