Blues boss Kieran McKenna says he’s happier with the numbers in his squad following the transfer window with Town now having felt the group he inherited was too large.

January saw the Blues bring in only two senior players, the loan signings of Tyreeq Bakinson and Dominic Thompson, while Jon Nolan’s contract was terminated by mutual consent before he joined Bristol Rovers, Scott Fraser joined Charlton on a permanent basis, Toto Nsiala departed for Fleetwood on the same basis, while Tomas Holy, Myles Kenlock, Rekeem Harper and Bailey Clements were among those to move out on loan to Port Vale, Colchester, Crewe and Stevenage respectively.

Asked what he made of his first experience of a transfer window and a deadline day as a manager, McKenna said: “Obviously there was a lot of business done across the clubs, across this league and across other leagues.

“It’s a day when you see a lot of action. For us, we were very keen to work towards a plan when possible going forward, as I’ve said right the way through the window, to not panic or rush into any decisions, to look at the short term and what we need for the rest of the season, but very much to keep an eye on the medium and long-term plan.

“Making sure that we don’t make any rash or hasty decisions that could affect what we want to do in the summer and affect what we want to do beyond that.

“It was interesting for me. I’ll have learnt from that period as well. And I think I’m happy with what we’ve done, we have a vision that we have and everyone’s working off the same page here.

“And I’m looking forward now to having a focus on the next three months, hopefully longer, with the group of players that we have.

“Finish the season as strongly as we can, win as many games as we can and wherever that takes us I’m sure we’ll be going into the summer window in a really strong position in terms of the backing and the support we have from the owners and from the club.

“And also the vision we also have on the football side of things for where we want to take this team.”

Did he keep close tabs on what was going on elsewhere? “Not really. We’re very aware of what’s going on and in constant dialogue but in terms of watching Sky Sports News, no.

“It’s a work day for us, we’re in constant communication with the club about things that were going on.

“We had a couple loan deals which went out on that day, so I was in constant communication with the club, the club was in constant communication with different intermediaries across football, but from my point of view it’s not a day to sit in front of the telly and watch Sky Sports News, it was a day of work.

“I was also working with the team, working with the players, watching back the games from last weekend, looking at where we can improve and planning Tuesday, Wednesday and right through to this weekend.”

Quizzed on whether there were any potential moves which didn’t come to fruition, he said:“No, there are always things that you’re looking at through the course of January and players who you’re speaking to across the course of the month, like Dominic Thompson, for example, who we spoke to for a couple of weeks before we managed to get him and a were in constant communication with him and with Brentford.

“He was somebody we managed to get across the line, but there are other players that you speak to over the course of the month that would have been of interest, that could be a possibility but it doesn’t always happen.

“Sometimes because of the player, sometimes because of the club that they’re at currently.

“As I say, we’re happy with the numbers that we’ve got. We’ve gone from probably 26, 27 senior players outfield, which was probably too much in my opinion for a competitive and hungry and spirited squad to working off 22, 23 outfielders now, which I think gives us good depth but also the right competition in the squad, the right ability to have the spirit and the feeling in the group that everybody has a chance to play if they train well.

“If they perform well then they’ll get a chance to get to minutes and then are going to have a chance to hold down a place in the team.

“It’s very important for me to have that over the course of the season, but especially in the next few months when we’re coming into a really important period. We want everyone with that real feeling of being in it together, ready to contribute whenever needed.”

Photo: Matchday Images

Ipswichbusiness added 15:31 - Feb 3 January last year saw us do a lot of short-term loan deals and look at the dross we ended up with.
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