Town chairman and CEO Mark Ashton has confirmed that the Blues will be active during the January transfer window.
Strong winter business played a big part in Town’s back-to-back promotions from League One and the Championship and Blues supporters will be hoping the prospects of a return to the Premier League will be given a similar boost this time around.
"I was thinking about going on holiday in January!” Ashton joked when asked about his plans for the window at Tuesday evening’s PLC AGM.
"It’s tough. I’m not going to lie to you, it’s never a good window to recruit in. Everybody’s looking for the same type of player.
"The good thing with us is, because of the backing that we’ve got, it’s very rare we fail because of finances.
"The challenge is that you’re always looking to bring in better. If he’s going to bring someone in, [manager] Kieran [McKenna] wants better than he’s got.
"To do that, you’ve got to go into higher divisions and the challenge then is to persuade a player to leave that higher division.
"When we brought Kieffer [Moore] in on loan [from AFC Bournemouth] in the promotion season, I remember us having that challenge.
"I remember when we signed Broady [Nathan Broadhead], sitting down with him and the family here at a hotel, trying to persuade them to leave Everton and come to League One. We had the same conversations with Leif [Davis, who was at Leeds].
"We’ve been growing on such a curve, we’ve always liked trading. It’s always a challenge to recruit players that will help make us better, and we try to move so quickly.
"You can guarantee we’ll be active in January. We’ve brought in now Mick Court from Manchester United as head of recruitment and that’s a long-term strategy for the people and infrastructure and data and technology he’ll bring in.
"But we will be active in the positions Kieran wants us in and, for sure, this January, to make sure we’re competitive again.
"I don’t think there’s been a transfer window when we’ve been here that we haven’t been active in and we need to be again in January. Can’t tell you who yet though!”