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McKenna Tight-Lipped on Hutchinson - Ipswich Town News

Blues boss Kieran McKenna kept his cards close to his chest when quizzed on reports of loan interest in Chelsea youngster Omari Hutchinson following this evening's 2-1 victory at Preston North End.

Asked whether any further additions to his squad are close, McKenna said he was due to check in with CEO Mark Ashton.

"I’m not certain, to be honest,” he said. "I’ll have to catch up with Mark now after the game.

"I know they’ve been working on some things this week, there were some things a little bit closer but I can’t give any exact updates on where we’re at, my full focus has been on this game.

"The players have got a day off now tomorrow, so I can turn my attention towards what’s going on on that side.”

According to various sources, Town have been in advanced talks with forward Hutchinson, 19, regarding a loan with some reports even outlining the terms of a proposed deal with the West Londoners insisting on a January recall.

Hutchinson is understood to have other suitors in addition to Town - West Brom were keen in January - with Chelsea said to be ready to make a decision before the end of the week.

Quizzed on the Jamaica international, the Blues boss said: "No, until there’s anything definite, my focus has been on Preston today, until there’s anything definite from the club, then we certainly wouldn’t talk about another club’s player. I’ll get updated on that tomorrow.”

Town were forced to field players out of position due to the absences of defenders Harry Clarke, George Edmundson and Janoi Donacien, but McKenna says he’s not looking to add players in that area of the squad just to increase numbers.

"We’re not far away all over the pitch, to be honest,” he reflected. "We don’t need to bring bodies in, we don’t need to buffer it out with defenders, we have good centre-halves, we’ve got people who can play centre-half, we have two good full-backs in each position, so we don’t need to bring bodies in and buffer out the squad.

"But if there’s quality that we can add that can improve us and add different qualities, then we want to do that, and we’re looking to do that.

"It’s not so much about a numbers issue, the squad’s in a good place but we want to improve from a position of strength, push forward and we’ve said all along we’re going to try and do that in this window.”

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