Town boss Kieran McKenna says he knows the areas of the squad which he wants to strengthen in the summer.
McKenna was speaking at this evening’s Fans’ Forum in the Sir Bobby Robson Suite where he, CEO Mark Ashton and director of performance Andy Rolls answered questions from supporters for an hour and a half.
Quizzed on his summer plans, McKenna said: "For sure we have to improve the squad. We feel like we’re in a pretty good place in terms of the squad.
"Part of my initial impression when I arrived in December was that the squad would need to be trimmed a little bit and possibly lose a little bit of depth but add a little bit more quality and specific qualities where we needed it.
"That was the main focus in January, but now going into the summer window, it’s about improving the quality we have in the squad and taking it to another level.
"I have very much a clear profile of the type of players that I would like. I’ve spoken about that from the first interview.
"We need a balanced squad of different types and different ages but primarily I want the team to be built around a young, hungry, technical and athletic group of players, who have a real passion to play for this football club.
"That will be the base, that will be the dynamic and the nature of the team going forward.
"But, of course, as you’re building a squad, you also need that mix of a couple of experienced players who set a good example and have been through the different levels of football and can lead some of the younger players.
"We are very much quite a way down the process of having the profile of players that we like and the profile of players that we want not just to recruit from the outside but develop within the club.
"We have the positions in particular that we’re particularly going to target in the summer and we’re in the process at the moment of working through some of those targets and making sure that we can hopefully get some good business done in the summer and get it done as early as possible in general so we can have a good full pre-season with the majority of the group, which is something I’m looking forward to.
"Obviously coming in in the middle of the season is a challenge in different ways in terms of being able to fully put your imprint on things and I’m looking forward to having a full off-season programme and a full pre-season programme and some non-competitive matches where we can work with what will hopefully be an improving group in the summer.”
On those pre-season plans Rolls added: "I would say this pre-season has been quite difficult. We obviously don’t know when the season’s ending, we want the season to go as long as possible.
"That’s been quite tricky, so we’ve got several options in progress at the minute. We’re desperate to go to Austria, I know the manager knows that area for pre-season, the mountains give great energy for pre-season.
"So we looked extensively at that, however, we thought the way the world is at the minute, Ukraine, Covid, the decision was made probably by us three that we were going to stay in Britain this year.
"We’ve got a few different options and it depends on when we finish. The games programme is coming together, we will be having a week away somewhere.
"We’re definitely staying in Britain, when and where and who, we’re still working on. It’s very flexible at this moment.”