Town boss Mick McCarthy says Bosman free transfers and loans are again the markets in which the Blues are operating this summer and has no problem that that's the case.
Having paid the largest fee since McCarthy took over at Town in November 2012 to Portsmouth for defender Adam Webster earlier this month, a figure understood to be in the region of £700,000 plus Matt Clarke, Town confirmed the addition of former loanee Paul Digby yesterday on a free transfer from Barnsley.
"That’s not going to change, I can’t see why it would. We’ve done particularly well in that market anyway,” McCarthy said.
And he says he’s happy with that approach: "I like rubbing people’s noses in it, people who have a lot of dosh to spend, to be quite honest with you. It suits me fine.
"If somebody came and said, ‘Here’s £40 million to spend’ I’m not going to say, ‘No, take it away’, but that’s not the case.
"I tell you every year that that’s my remit, that’s my modus operandi, that’s the way I’m working with the club and the squad of players and with [owner] Marcus [Evans]. And we do it well. And let’s hope we do it well again this year, that’s what we’re trying to do.”
He says no further additions are immediately on the cards: "Not at the minute, no. We’re looking at loan players. There might be. I’m speaking to people about other things.”
He added: "Loan signings are probably our best route. If we’re going to get them from the Premier League, what they’re doing is keeping their players because the ones that are at the European Championships will probably be given three weeks off.
"Then the younger ones who are behind those they’ll all be used for pre-season games, tours and then they’ll make their decisions nearer the start of the season. We’ve just got to be in the best place to get them when we can.”
The Town boss, who ruled out the Blues signing anyone who has been playing at the Euros, says even without further additions he's happy enough with some areas of his squad: "I’ve got eight really solid defenders. I’ve got a nucleus of midfield players with Teddy Bishop coming back, Andre Dozzell’s come into the squad to add some real quality and creativity.
"We’ve got Skusey, Dougie, Luke Hyam, Giles Coke’s been injured, Kevin Bru is coming back from international duty.
"Central midfield we’re in good shape, what we’ve lost is players in wide areas. But we’ve got four strikers still, so we’re all right.”
Does the signing of Webster, a ball-playing centre-half, indicate a change of style with the Blues more likely to play the ball out from the back?
"We’ve never not tried to play it out from the back, to be quite honest,” he insisted. "You won’t be seeing our two centre-backs in the right-back and left-back positions and everything going out, but I would love to be able to play more football in the team. And if that’s how it transpires that would be great.”
McCarthy says he quickly gets back into the swing of things after the summer break: "I had a great holiday, enjoyed every minute of it and I’m looking forward to the season now.
"On my way back, I have to be honest, I could have stayed another week. But I get back, start talking to people, the ball comes out again, we start talking about it again and it’s always exciting. I’m looking forward to the new season.”
He says the squad returned on Monday in good shape with players no longer coming back for pre-season training having put on the pounds.
"Anybody that does that is a mug now because they’d be so far behind these lads, that was proven yesterday in the bleep test where there were some incredible results. They’ve looked after themselves and they’re all ready for the new season.”