Blues boss Mick McCarthy admits he’s frustrated not to have made further additions to his squad and says deals have broken down "for various reasons” this summer. McCarthy’s record Town signing Adam Webster, who joined from Portsmouth for £700,000 plus Matt Clarke, and former loanee Paul Digby, who was recruited on a free transfer from Barnsley, are the only signings so far this summer.
"Still working on it, hopefully we’ll get something but at the moment there’s nothing happening,” he said after Saturday’s 1-1 friendly draw at Cambridge United.
"We’ve tried and can’t do it at the moment, so we’ll just keep trying. There’s a bit of frustration but that’s not through lack of trying. [Deals haven’t come off] for various reasons.”
He added: "It’s not through want of trying, far from it, that’s the frustration, not with anybody else, not with the club, not with [owner] Marcus [Evans], just the fact that we can’t get anything done.
"And a lot of it stems from a lot of players being away on pre-season and we’ll just have to wait.”
He admits he would have liked more signings in by this point but says it’s not a huge concern that new players will now come in with the season about to start or already under way.
"Yes I would, but I take the view that they’re all doing pre-season elsewhere. So if we get one in the week leading up to the start of the season, or even the week after, they’ve all done their pre-season, they’ll all be fit, they’ll all be ready to go.”
Lack of signings wasn’t the only reason McCarthy was frustrated at Cambridge on Saturday, the Blues boss having been angry that his team was unable to hold on to their lead, Joe Pigott netting an equaliser a minute from the end after Andre Dozzell had put the Blues in front on 83.
"The game is coming to an end and we’re keeping the ball but we’re not going anywhere with it,” he said.
"And we kept it and kept it and passed it and it gradually slowed down to where we gave the ball away here and it ended up in our net. It’s just unacceptable.
"It was collective responsibility for slowing it down so much and not passing like we’ve tried to do. One stray pass and they break up the field and it ends up in our net. Not good enough.
"I’m not going to start accepting that, we had too many goals against us late in games last year for whatever reason, whether it was a freekick or a corner, I’m not bothered, we can’t afford to do that. So I might as well start snarling about it now. I don’t want to see that again.
"I think they were trying to be sensible in keeping the ball but it wasn’t going anywhere, it was just nothing and we probably got our just desserts.”
He added: "It’s important for our fans [to win]. This could have been a cup game on a Tuesday night, we could have come away, we don’t want a replay and we end up with a poxy replay and then we’ve got another game and then we’re playing on the Saturday.
"We’ve got to win that game. What was it 88 minutes or 89 minutes? You’ve got to win the game. That’s unacceptable.
"I had a few words with one or two of them. I’ll be all right on Monday when I see them, I’ll be back at it, but as a collective thing, as a team, we can’t do that. You’ve just got to manage the game.
"Even if it’s somebody on the pitch who says, hold on a minute, come on, do it properly. And we didn’t.
"I’ve just said to them, we’ve got Barnsley at home on the opening day who’ll be breathing fire and brimstone. They’ve just got promoted, they got promoted well and finished the season brilliantly, so they’ve got momentum.
"That’s our home game and then we go to Brentford, who are spending money. Wolves have just been taken over and are spending, then Norwich at home. That’s a helluva start for us, so we need to be right at it from the very start.”
Town have two friendlies remaining, at Charlton on Tuesday and at home to Belgian side Royale Union Saint-Gilloise next Saturday.
The Blues boss says he'll give players full games in those matches: "They’ll be getting 90 minutes, hopefully. Whether that’s the team that plays [against Barnsley] is another matter.”