Kieran McKenna says summer signing Sammie Szmodics was a player who had been on his radar for a few transfer windows.
Szmodics’s move from Blackburn was a long-running saga - TWTD first revealed the Blues were in talks with Rovers on July 12th and the deal was finally completed on August 16th - but McKenna confirmed that the interest in the Colchester-born forward went back much further than that.
"I think it’s probably been there over the last few seasons,” he said. "I’ve only been here for the last couple of seasons and Sammie’s been a very good player in the EFL for more seasons than I’ve been involved in it.
"Maybe in my first full summer here, I think he moved to Blackburn when we were in League One, so he wasn’t on our radar that season. I think Peterborough got relegated that season and I think he’d earned the right to go back to the Championship.
"And then over the last two seasons competing in the Championship, he showed what a good player he is, what a goal threat he can be and I think when he is a local player who’s got a history and an affinity around the area and around the football club, I think it’s always a nice bonus when you can have someone like that around the place.
"But that’s a small part of it, I think the bigger part of it is he’s a player who has worked ever so hard on his career to get to where he’s got to, to have the seasons that he’s had over the last couple of seasons and rightfully earned the shot to play in the Premier League.
"And for us as a newly promoted team, bringing in someone who can be the threat in term of goalscoring that he is but also work very, very hard for the team, I think that’s the type of profile that was always going to be attractive for us, and that’s why Sammie’s here.”
Asked about comparisons with Leicester and England striker Jamie Vardy, who like Szmodics - who is 29 next Tuesday - made the step-up to the Premier League relatively late in his career having been in non-league, McKenna said: "I think Jamie Vardy is a great role model and example for anyone who has maybe played the early and maybe middle stages of their professional career [at a lower level].
"In terms of what you can achieve and the way he progressed to being a Premier League and international striker. He’s maybe 37 now and he is a great role model for anyone from that background.
"But we have so many great stories in our squad. You go through players who have worked their way up the leagues – Sammie Szmodics being one, Samy Morsy being another having just turned an older age this week, though he won’t want me to say the number [33].
"To reach the Premier League as a club captain at that age and to be performing really, really well, imposing himself [is very impressive].
"There are so many players in that squad who have had to fight to get to where they are – I could go right through the squad.
"They have worked through different leagues, different teams, different styles, different managers, to now arrive in the Premier League. It is something to be very proud of.
"But I know that for all of them, there is a real determination to show they can impact this league and not just be happy to have played in the Premier League. Otherwise we might as well finish the season now.
"They want to show they can perform well in the Premier League, individually, and help the team in games and help the club to thrive.”