Blues boss Mick McCarthy is hopeful that he's getting close to making another signing, but says that man isn’t Huddersfield winger Harry Bunn.
"Hopefully, I think we’re progressing,” McCarthy said when asked whether he was getting close to making an addition at lunchtime’s pre-match press conference, which was live on TWTV.
"Fingers crossed, I’m not going to make too much of it but we’re hoping to get somebody.
"Hopefully we’ll get somebody done and as soon as we do there’ll be an announcement. We’ve been spinning plates all summer. Lots of them have fallen on my head. I’m hoping this one doesn’t.”
McCarthy confirmed that 24-year-old Bunn has been on his radar but isn’t the man he is currently closing in on bringing to Portman Road.
"People know we’re needing a striker,” he said. "I’ve had hundreds put into me of every nationality, every creed, every colour and I’ve pretty much watched them all on our systems.
"I dropped asleep one afternoon I’d watched that many, and Harry Bunn was one of them. And I have to say, and he is available, I like Harry Bunn. But it’s not him.”
Is there money available? "If it is, we’ll try and get it for the right deal. I’ll let [owner] Marcus [Evans] deal with that. I’ve pointed out what player I would like and hopefully we’ll get him.”
McCarthy says one of his January targets, Preston striker Jordan Hugill, is now out of his price range.
"I think you’ll find he’s way beyond us,” the Blues manager admitted. "I believe Birmingham were looking at him and I’m told have been quoted £6 million, or that’s what they’re looking for him.
"But this is hearsay, I haven’t spoken to [Birmingham manager] Harry [Redknapp] or anybody at Preston. I speak to a lot of agents a lot of people in the game and there are a few interested in him, and I’m not surprised. Good luck to him if he moves.”