Blues boss Paul Hurst says even owner Marcus Evans was surprised by the changes made to the squad over the summer with 12 players having come in, while Martyn Waghorn, Adam Webster and Joe Garner were among last season's regulars to depart, the likes of David McGoldrick and Luke Hyam having moved on at the end of last season.
New loanees Jordan Graham, Jon Walters and Matthew Pennington came in last week ahead of Friday’s loan deadline, while Tristan Nydam (St Johnstone), Luke Woolfenden (Swindon), Ben Morris (Forest Green) and Josh Emmanuel (Shrewsbury) moved out on loan to gain experience with Chris Smith (Aldershot), Pat Webber (Braintree) and Aaron Drinan (Sutton) all already on loan.
"We can concentrate on the squad we have going forward now until January,” Hurst told the club site.
"I can remember talking to Marcus and saying what I was hoping to do and I think he was quite shocked and was thinking, ‘that is for another time’.
"It’s about me wanting to put my stamp on things I guess and we have done more than what he first thought.
"Whenever there has been a possibility we have looked at it and it has been a busy time. Certainly outgoing, it has provided the most opportunities for players to go out on loan that I’ve been involved with and I think Marcus felt the same and we took advantage of that where we felt it was right.”
Hurst could yet make one further addition to his squad with former West Ham central defender James Collins having joined the squad for training yesterday, as TWTD revealed.
According to some reports today, another of the Welshman’s previous clubs, Aston Villa, could also show interest in the free agent.