Town will go into Saturday’s home game against Brentford having been unable to add another centre-half to their squad.

Blues boss Mick McCarthy says plenty of players have come into their thoughts but so far with no success.

TWTD understands Brighton’s 24-year-old defender Connor Goldson is among those to have come into consideration.

“We’ve not exhausted all avenues yet but we’ve pretty much driven up them all, there are a few left to go,” reflected McCarthy, who also confirmed that Josh Emmanuel can't be brought back from his loan at Rotherham until January.

“There are quite a few that are all dependent on something else. That doesn’t make my job any easier or anybody else’s but in the meantime we’ll keep cracking on with what we’ve got.”

He confirmed that it’s now too late to bring someone in for tomorrow: “He would have had to have been signed by 12 o’clock. He might not be signed by 12 on Monday, to be honest.”

Does the fact that other clubs know he is desperate to add a central defender mean the price of potential targets goes up? “It’s just part of the gig, it just makes it a little bit more difficult. But we’ll keep trying.

“You wouldn’t believe the number of calls and names and videos and people I’ve looked at and we’ll continue to do so until we get somebody.”

With skipper Luke Chambers out for a month and Adam Webster (ankle) and Tommy Smith (hamstring) for around another seven weeks, McCarthy says whoever comes in will get a chance to play regular football.

“It’s an opportunity for somebody,” he said. “There’ll be somebody that wants it, there’ll be somebody who’ll let me have a player to come take this opportunity.

“As I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of youngsters that I think Premier League clubs would like to let out, but you go through the league and see how many teams have got an 18-year-old playing at centre-half. I don’t know if there’s one. A 19-year-old, I’m not sure that there is.

“I had a look and pretty much they’re big, tough hairy-arsed experienced professional footballers. And that’s pretty much what you need.

“We’ve lost one ourselves, Chambo. He played 46 games last year, he’s 32, hugely experienced and that’s hard to replace with a young ‘un.”

With hindsight, does the Blues boss regret not offering Steven Taylor, who was with Town in pre-season training, his short-term deal having ended in May, a contract?

“No, not at all,” he insisted. “Since when have we stockpiled players? ‘Just in case that three of the centre-halves get injured we’ll just just keep you around’. Would he want to do that? He’s gone to Peterborough, he’s playing. That was never going to be an option.

“And, by the way, you get one injured, we can cover that. We get two, I’ve covered that with Jonas Knudsen or with Jordan Spence doing it.

“I get three injured, I don’t know how you manage to cover for that. If that’s me being a bad manager you better put that.”

Photo: TWTD

BlueandTruesince82 added 15:20 - Aug 18 Thnaks spot 're Taylor. I'll be amazed if goes the season without getting cracked
2

bluehook added 15:22 - Aug 18 Blimey, young Phil has upset him again!😂
0

Mark added 15:28 - Aug 18 We had 6 centre backs in January and have 3 now, so might need to add a couple to the stockpile!
3

whosroundisitanyway added 15:31 - Aug 18 They can't trouble our defence while we're camped in their half so lets just do that. COME ON YOU BLUES!!!!
10

iaintaylorx added 15:39 - Aug 18 Looks like it will be... Iorfa, Spence, Knudsen, Kenlock? Not ideal, but we will have to work with what we have got!
3

jdtractor96 added 15:40 - Aug 18 It's so unfortunate we have picked up so many injuries given how good we look going forward. Fingers crossed we can continue to pick up results until a few of them are back fully fit. Feel sorry for MM
5

gosblue added 15:52 - Aug 18 Cole Skuse's time to shine. He needs to be a proper bloke and protect the back four. Under Paul Jewell we had one CB at one point and that was an inexperience Tommy Smith. So it's not all bad.
3

hadleighboyblue added 16:13 - Aug 18 Really up against it , but let's keep the feel good factor going and really get behind whoever plays . A win tomorrow will have to be earned by everyone pulling together
4

mkbobby added 17:15 - Aug 18 I would go with 5 at th back with iorfa in the centre spence and Knudsen either side of him and play kenlock and ward as wing backs with scuse as the holding midfielder with sears , mcgoldrick and waghorn across a 3 and garner in front of them it gives us a bit more security that way
3

el_nino added 17:19 - Aug 18 Alex Bruce is playing for Bury on non-contract terms. Offer him a deal to the end for the season. Done.
-1

Fat_Boy_Tim added 17:45 - Aug 18 Yeah, we could still have Taylor and have 4 injured center backs or we could get Bruce in and have 3 injured and one banned! For my money I'd keep Iorfa on the right because he causes so many problems going forwards. Spence didn't win that many headers on Tuesday but he did mop up well and I doubt we'll see as much artillery bombardment from Brentford anyway. so Spence as the right center back, that only really leaves Knudsen as left center back and Kenlock on the left. Skuse (Who I think has been done a great job shielding the defense this season) might need to sit even deeper.

1

jas0999 added 17:49 - Aug 18 Good start, but considering Webster woeful injury history, we desperately need to invest in a top championship centre half. Not a loan or a free. A regular starter who may cost a few hundred thousand.
3

muccletonjoe added 18:15 - Aug 18 Not many teams have an 18 year old centre half but then again not many teams have all the senior ones injured. Woolfenden is a centre half - play him ffs.
4

Lightningboy added 18:33 - Aug 18 I think we've still got enough with the players who are fit..football's different these days,central defenders don't need to be 6'6" anymore,so long as you've got people in there who can tackle we should be ok 🤞🏻
3

cressi added 18:35 - Aug 18 Bruce he was crap 5 years ago please forget it he got booked all the the time because his positioning was shi*e if he was any good he wouldn't have ended up at Bury let's move forward.
3

cressi added 18:35 - Aug 18 Bruce he was crap 5 years ago please forget it he got booked all the the time because his positioning was shi*e if he was any good he wouldn't have ended up at Bury let's move forward.
1

cressi added 18:35 - Aug 18 Bruce he was crap 5 years ago please forget it he got booked all the the time because his positioning was shi*e if he was any good he wouldn't have ended up at Bury let's move forward.
1

cressi added 18:36 - Aug 18 Oops sorry
3

BrettenhamBlue added 19:13 - Aug 18 Don't understand why we don't sign Kean Bryan. According to City reports, they want him loaned out to a Championship club this season, with the idea that he is played. Is there a money problem with that deal? Bury managed to pay last season?
0

strikalite added 22:00 - Aug 18 ^^be a big loan fee involved, Mick has also said he(and i agree)needs a streetwise pro at the back not a kid, that'll be tough as decent central defenders not featuring for respective Clubs are about as rare as hens bloody teeth...
1

miltonsnephew added 22:21 - Aug 18 Let's hope it's not Bassong!!
2

Lathers added 22:23 - Aug 18 Bulldog spirit, Mick needs to patch up the defence with the boys he has at his disposal (although not a game to bring in complete rookies) and then play the 4 strikers and make sure we score more than we concede. How exciting 😉
1

TurinBlue added 23:31 - Aug 18 I seem to remember a famous Town manager playing several teenage centre backs. Wark, Beattie, Peddelty, spring to mind. Butcher wasn't very old either but he started at left back. In those days we had to make do with what we had - it seemed to work OK.
3

ArnieM added 07:49 - Aug 19 Nothing for it then. The Town fans will have to be VERY vocal today and get behind the lads. That will be the 12th man needed I think!
2

PortmanTerrorist added 10:53 - Aug 19 TITUS ??????
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