Boss Mick McCarthy believes new signing Adam Webster is “hopefully a real star in the making”. The 21-year-old joined the Blues from Portsmouth earlier in the summer with Matt Clarke and a fee understood to be in the region of £700,000 moving in the opposite direction.
"He was a star for Portsmouth,” McCarthy said. "I can’t believe Portsmouth are still in League Two, that they didn’t get promoted, they were excellent against us.
"We watched them a lot last season and I think he could end up being anything. He’s a really talented lad. He can defend but he’s very good on the ball, so that might add a new dimension to our team, let’s hope he does.”
Webster wasn’t involved in pre-season training with the rest of the squad this morning as he is still suffering from the knock which saw him miss the League Two play-offs.
"He came with an ankle injury, so he’s coming back,” McCarthy explained. "He was on the AlterG machine, the machine that can levitate you so you only put 20, 30 or 40 per cent of your weight on it.
"He was on that yesterday, he’s coming back. But he’s a really talented footballer as well as being able to defend, he’s a very good player.
"It’s looking like he might be right for the start of the season. He’s not been brought in for the squad, if he’s better than the others, he’ll play.”
The Town boss admits it was a difficult decision to let academy graduate Clarke, who spent last season on loan at Pompey, depart on a permanent basis.
"It was a tough call but then I’d got two left-footed centre-backs who were in front of him, Tommy and Christophe Berra, and he was unlikely to move them out,” he continued. "I do see Adam Webster as hopefully a real star in the making.”
Despite adding to his defenders, McCarthy isn’t looking to move on any regular members of his backline
"Peter Malarczyk will move on,” he said. "We’ve had a bit of interest in him, maybe on loan. He’s got a year left on his contract, we’ll see what happens with him.”
McCarthy confirmed that Kevin Foley won’t be coming back with skipper Luke Chambers and Josh Emmanuel his right-backs.
The Blues boss says no further new additions are imminent: "We’re just waiting because we’re not going to go out and just select somebody and spend loads of money on them.
"We’ll wait and see what we can get on loan and I think if you look there’s not that much happening. People come back to pre-season and see what they’ve got.
"The teams in the European Championships will all have to give their players probably three weeks off, so any squad players behind those will be used and utilised in pre-season games, pre-season training and probably tours abroad.
"So anybody that’s going to be let out on loan — and we’ll have to take them on a window-to-window or season-long loan — that will be done when they all come back for pre-season, I guess. We’re talking to people, but as yet nothing will be happening.”
He wouldn’t be drawn on claims of his interest in Charlton winger Callum Harriott - "You wouldn’t expect me to comment if I was” — and played down the chances of former trialist Kane Smith signing from non-league Hitchin Town with Chambers and Emmanuel in his squad.
"Chambo is still my first-choice right-back and Josh will be competing for that position, so that’s probably a no.”
Midfielder Kevin Bru was away with Mauritius earlier in the summer and will be back with the squad to join them for next week’s training camp at the Carton House Hotel in Co Kildare, while Daryl Murphy has also been given additional time off and will return to the club on Tuesday 12th July.