Town boss Mick McCarthy says he’s as frustrated as supporters that the Blues were unable to add a permanent replacement for Daryl Murphy during the transfer window. The 33-year-old joined Newcastle at the end of the August window and an experienced similar striker was top of Town’s January wish-list.
However, the Blues - who eventually added Reading's Dominic Samuel on loan for the rest of the season on deadline day - were unable to land their man having been keen on a number of players including Rotherham’s Danny Ward and Preston’s Jordan Hugill, for whom the Blues had a £2 million offer rebuffed.
Meanwhile elsewhere clubs such as Sheffield Wednesday and McCarthy’s former club Wolves were spending fees in eight figures as they added to their firepower.
Does McCarthy believe it’s becoming impossible for the Blues to compete given the money spent elsewhere?
"It’s making it very difficult, isn’t it?” he admitted. "There was £13 million spent at Wolves [on Helder Costa]. I remember the conversation I had just before I got the sack, that the Premier League money was going to go down and people wouldn’t be buying or selling, wages were going to go down.
"We didn’t have that much to spend in the Premier League then and they’ve gone and spent it in the Championship.
"It’s really tough to compete, to try and get that top six. Sheffield Wednesday, did they get Jordan Rhodes in for £10 million? It’s pretty bonkers, isn’t it?”
Do the Blues need to change their approach to recruitment going forward? "That’s all well and good but I don’t see anybody walking into anybody’s house and telling them they’ve got to go and get the garden tidied up and get a nice new car and make the street look better just because the neighbour wants it to happen.
"It’s Marcus’s club, it’s Marcus’s money and I think he has to decide - well, has decided - that is what we do. And that is how I manage the club, that is how it is run.
"And, to be fair, up until this season we’ve been competitive, the last two seasons before, sixth and seventh, we’d done particularly well. But it’s proving to be tough this year.”
McCarthy signed seven players during the January window, but does he believe he was given sufficient backing?
"What do you want me to say to that? What answer would you like to that?” he responded.
Pressed further to give his thoughts, he added: "I’m pleased with the ones we’ve got but we did try to get others. I’m disappointed that we didn’t but that’s not through the want of trying.”
While the Blues didn’t land their targets, other clubs did sign players in the million-pound-plus market in which Town were shopping, Grimsby’s Omar Bogle joined Wigan, while Fulham’s Matt Smith moved to QPR, however, McCarthy says he wasn’t going to spend money for the sake of spending money.
"It’s easy to go and spend a million quid just to says we’ve spend a million quid,” he continued. "I think the ones you buy at a million quid have got to be better than the ones you’ve got.
"So, if we’d have been targeting those then perhaps I didn’t think they were value for money either, some of those deals which were done.
"You go an buy one now at a million quid just because you’re desperate to get one for a million quid and actually you’ve got him now for the next three, three and a half or four years and it perhaps wasn’t worth it.”
Given the money spent elsewhere, did he feel underpowered in the January market? "I always revert back to the fact that if the household has got a budget and we’re going to a restaurant, I spend my budget.
"I don’t go looking in the window of another one, that’s what we’ve got. If I’m going out to a decent restaurant I don’t go looking at the Michelin star one and think ‘I wish I could be eating there’, I’ll get on with it.”
Does he believe clubs were expecting bigger fees than players were worth having seen the size of deals elsewhere? "Do I think the market is unrealistic and bonkers? Yes, I do. Completely.”
Were clubs expecting everyone to splash out the big fees, not just those in the division with the bigger budgets? "What you’re saying is Ipswich fans would like to see more money being spent.”
Since Tuesday's deadline fans have expressed their frustration that no replacement for Murphy was signed - "We’ve not been able to get one, have we?” - and McCarthy says he’s equally as frustrated as they are: "Absolutely.”