Town defender Dara O’Shea says the Blues’ summer signings so far have settled well and have all added much-needed experience and quality to the group.
David Button, Cédric Kipré, Azor Matusiwa and Ashley Young have all joined the club this summer ahead of Town’s return to the Championship after relegation from the Premier League last season.
While Button has been signed as a cover goalkeeper, the three outfielders have all worked themselves up to speed across the Blues’ four public pre-season victories.
O’Shea, who was officially named as the successor to former club captain Sam Morsy earlier this week, has been impressed with the quartet so far.
"Really well,” he said. "You’d have to speak to them to fully understand that, but from what you can see and feel around the training ground, they’re happy, they’re settled and playing great football too so that’s a positive.
"We’re really grateful to have them boys in the building too, they’ve added a lot of experience and qualities. That’s something we’re going to need this season.”
On the arrival of Young, he added: "He was obviously a signing we were all really happy to see come in. His career speaks for itself.
"We all couldn’t believe his age and how he moved, it doesn’t really correlate. To be 40 years old and be still able to do what he does is amazing and it’s a credit to him.
"He’s going to bring so much knowledge and experience at times, it’s something we’re going to have to buy into.”
Kipré may be new to Town, but he is a familiar face to many of the squad, including fellow central defender O’Shea, having played together at the back for West Bromwich Albion alongside Button and Conor Townsend.
"Ceddy’s very laid back,” O’Shea said of the Reims loanee. "Very relaxed and that’s something you kind of need as you have the opposite in some other people.
"As a player he’s unbelievable - he’s really strong, really quick and his quality on the ball will show so many times this season.
"He’s a great guy as well and having good people in this changing room is massive. That’s almost our superstrength at times is how close and how much the people are really good human beings in this club. To add more good people into it is really positive.
"It’s quite funny the amount of West Brom boys because David Button came in as well. We’ve taken most of the back unit I think from West Brom.
"We all know each other really well so it was probably easier for Cedric coming in knowing so many faces. For us ourselves as players, we’re quite close to a lot of them boys so it’s nice.”
Kipré will hope to help fill the void in the Town defence that has been left following this summer’s departures of Cameron Burgess and Axel Tuanzebe, who both turned down contract offers to pursue opportunities elsewhere.
While admitting those two were difficult players to replace, O’Shea says the Blues’ recruitment in doing so has been effective.
"When you have such important players leave like that, it’s always going to be a hard task to fill the shoes that they’ve left,” he said. "But I think we have, especially bringing Ceddy in, he’s been amazing since he’s come in and Ashley too.
"As a back unit we’re quite tight and we work together very closely individually quite often. There was a lot of emphasis on us getting together in training doing our own unit work and stuff like that.
"It’s been really pleasing so far, the boys have settled in great and it’s given the opportunity for lads to step into those positions too.”
The one constant in the defence is likely to be the two starting centre-backs. O’Shea is expected to partner Jacob Greaves once again, the pair having played with each other in more than half of Town’s Premier League matches last season.
The 26-year-old said: "Me and Jacob know each other really well having played alongside each other and complement each other at times too.
"It’s going to be important for us all as a centre-back unit to come together and be ready to play with whoever.
"Nothing is guaranteed as to a certain partnership or a certain player playing, so it’s going to be a collective to all be in tune and on the same page as each other. That’s going to be important to get ourselves to that position.”
Following a late finish to the season in the Premier League and the earlier start to the campaign in the Championship, Town have had a shorter pre-season than usual to regain fitness and get sharp ahead of Friday’s season opener against Birmingham City.
O’Shea also had the June international window with the Republic of Ireland to contend with, meaning his summer was even shorter than some of his teammates.
"It’s been a bit different,” he said. "The timings work different with the season ending a bit later and then going on internationals, you have a shorter period of time for pre-season.
"It’s been tough but it’s been really productive. The important thing was everyone coming back in good shape. Everyone did and everyone came back with a good mindset too which is important.
"We got to work early in pre-season, do a lot of our hard work and get ourselves into the best physical shape we could.
"I think we’ve shown that in the games, pre-season has been a really good opportunity for us to test ourselves intensity-wise and I think we’ve been there in games.
"That’s something we’re going to have to dig into a lot this season is keeping our intensity high.
"We know what it’s going to take to get out of this league this year and we’re going to have to be at our very best. I suppose there’s no better time to audition for that than pre-season games when you can try new things.
"Our mindset is a non-negotiable, what we give running-wise is something that just has to happen. You can’t negotiate with the manager about that and that’s something we are as a club, we have to do that.
"Pre-season is a time where you can implement that and also implement different tactics and work like that too.”
The season warmup period was also a time where Town supporters got the opportunity to see Chiedozie Ogbene back in action for the club having been out of action for around nine months.
The pacy winger suffered an Achilles tear at Brentford in October last year and returned to the pitch for the first time during the pre-season friendly against Austrian side Blau-Weiß Linz.
Speaking about his international teammate, O’Shea used the obvious football cliché before praising Ogbene for his mental strength throughout his rehabilitation period.
"Having Chieo back is like a new signing,” he said. "It’s quite remarkable really how he carries himself, I’ve never known someone to be as positive as he was. If you ask anybody a question about him, they’ll probably give you the same sort of answer.
"He’s just such a burst of happiness. He comes in the morning, he’s dancing and I’m thinking fair play to you. For someone to be on the sidelines for so long, be so happy, to have the mindset and the work ethic as well, he’s worked so so hard to get himself back in the shape that he’s in and you’ve seen that in the pre-season games.
"He’s almost ahead of schedule and shouldn’t have played as many minutes, but because he’s moving so well and looking so well, he’s got that opportunity.
"Credit to him and I’m really looking forward to having to play with him again this season, it’s been a long time without him and obviously he’ll do well for our country too.
"It’s World Cup qualification. It’s something that as a nation we need to qualify for and get to a major tournament. There’s no better time than the next World Cup which will hopefully be amazing.
"There’s obviously a few games to go before we meet up with them but definitely one of my goals this season is to try and qualify for that.”
You can read O’Shea talking about his reaction to being appointed captain here and on tonight's game at Birmingham here.