Town boss Kieran McKenna, who is close to adding Blackpool centre-half Richard Keogh to his squad, has been looking to add an experienced defender to his squad and says confirmation of the new signing, which is expected to come tomorrow, is likely to lead to youngster Corrie Ndaba going out on loan.

Keogh was at Town today to undergo a medical and discuss personal terms a nominal fee having been agreed with the Championship Tangerines.

We understand that there is still some minor issues relating to the deal to be confirmed but with the expectation that the deal will be completed on Wednesday.

McKenna wouldn’t comment specifically about Keogh but says a central defender of his ilk is something he has been looking for.

“There’s nothing announced or formalised yet, so I won’t speak about any individuals until that is done,” he said.

“It is a profile in terms of an experienced defender that we’ve looked at over the course of the summer as something that we could add to our group.

“We feel that we have a really talented centre-half group and some really good young defenders in the building but for that department quite a young group, I think Cam Burgess is the oldest at 26 going down to Elkan [Baggott] at 18.

“So it’s a young group and we’ve looked at the teams who are successful in our division often and they predominantly include an older player in that unit as well who can help develop the others and help the team over the course of a very long season.

“We have looked at the profile of bringing in an experienced defender also to allow some of our younger defenders to get game time and if and when that’s formalised then it will be announced by the club.”

Sone Aluko has shown the value of an experienced head among the forward players and McKenna is looking for someone similar to join the defensive ranks.

“I think Sone is a really good role model for our young forward players in terms of how he conducts himself, how he trains and how he is as a person,” he said.

“So I think that’s fair to say that he shows the value of that in that front unit and obviously we have three really experienced midfielders who are all fantastic characters but I guess Samy’s the oldest one at 30 who’s had great experience and leads the way in that department.

“But especially compared to the most successful teams at this level over the course of a lot of years, we are very young in the defensive unit and it’s useful at times to have an experienced head around those young players.

“And it’s also very important that if we have young talented defenders who aren’t going to get regular, regular minutes for us that we enable them to do that so that they are able to make the steps necessary to hopefully be first-team regulars here some day.”

That is likely to see former Irish U21 international call-up Ndaba, 22, move out on loan. We understand Scottish Premiership Kilmarnock and League One sides Burton and Fleetwood have all shown interest in the Dubliner, who was on loan at Salford in League Two last season.

“That’s something that we’ve spoken about between ourselves and Corrie,” McKenna said when asked about the prospects of Ndaba going on on loan.

“And when anything’s announced by the club and there’s anything in place, then we’ll announce that, but that’s a possibility.”

Photo: Action Images

FrankMarshall added 23:04 - Aug 9 Chambers did a pretty good job.
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Carberry added 23:43 - Aug 9 And you think Keogh is a good role model do you?
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FrankMarshall added 23:45 - Aug 9 Wish we had sticked with James Wilson.
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blues1 added 23:57 - Aug 9 Carberry. Absolutely he is. Just bcse he made the mistake of getting in a car with some1,who was drunk doesn't make him a bad person. But as usual some of our so called fans cant wait to have something negative to say about players. Can only assume uve never made a mistake in ur life, to be so judgemental of others.
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Beattiesballbag added 00:04 - Aug 10 A Santos would be nice.......someone who commands the back line. Although our ball watchers would be adequate,....... if we could score some more goals! Can't see that improving when the token forward has only 50/50 balls to feed on ! Not to mention there are usualy 8 or 9 defenders in or around the box by the time he sees the ball.
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Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 00:05 - Aug 10 Ndaba is hardly a youngster any more.
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Carberry added 00:12 - Aug 10 Blues1, you really have a problem don't you? You just can't let others have an opinion that differs from yours. If you looked carefully at what happened you would know it was a completely unforgiveable drunken scenario for the captain of the club to be involved in. He showed no level of responsibility and put all of them in danger, including innocent parties. You think that's OK do you? And you think it was a one off? How naive can you be? I will have my opinion, you can have yours but I'm not taking cr*p from you.

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algarvefan added 01:29 - Aug 10 But you let james Wilson go, he was superb in my book. Lets hope you have thought about an experienced striker too????
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Kropotkin123 added 02:22 - Aug 10 He didn't let Wilson go, PC did.
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Suffolkboy added 04:15 - Aug 10 KM has proved he knows a bit about the game ,about man management and about character ; there's no need or call to become negative . In any event it seems RK might only come on a one year contract initially ,and KM makes a confident case for his judgement ! COYB - look on the bright and positive side !
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Towny_in_Taipei added 06:24 - Aug 10 Funny…. I thought we needed a good striker….but what do I or many other fans know about football!!
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USA added 07:55 - Aug 10 The thing with this for me is, yes it releases a player to go out on loan and get games. No one is against this principle. However in Ndaba's case he already did this last year and proved himself very capable with Salford winning their player of the year. So he must be ready or thereabouts now. And at 22 Ndaba isn't a youngster. This is a mistake in my opinion.
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Umros added 08:02 - Aug 10 Never liked or rated this defender. Error prone and too hoofy. Fingers crossed he will help but I'm sceptical and pleased it's only a short term deal.
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Ipswichbusiness added 08:06 - Aug 10 We can't score goals so we sign a defender?!
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Ipswichbusiness added 08:10 - Aug 10 Carberry: please remember that 1) he was not the driver, 2) he was not prosecuted for anything, 3) when sacked he won an Employment Tribunal case so the only Court to examine the matter has supported him.
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JewellintheTown added 08:33 - Aug 10 I feel like I'm watching a horror movie when everyone in the theatre and even the bit actors can see a monster/ murderer creeping up behind the person the camera is on and everyone shouting to look behind them at the obvious! Turn around KM and face the fact we need a decent striker or it will kill our season!!!!!!!
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dirtydingusmagee added 09:43 - Aug 10 with respect to Keogh we dont need old fading defenders /midfield players we NEED a striker who can actually score goals . We are still pathetic up front.
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Carberry added 10:23 - Aug 10 Ipswichbusiness, the court made a legal decision on employment law, they didn't support him personally. Just look at the circumstances and see if you want your team captain to behave like that. Is that being a role model? There must be any number of crocked, 35 year old centre halves we could choose from and we decide on him. There is nothing about this signing that sends a good message about the future of the club.

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Ipswichbusiness added 10:35 - Aug 10 Carberry; it found that there was not gross misconduct on his part. You might also want to read his interview with The Guardian (link on another news item) before condemning him.
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Trojan added 16:08 - Aug 10 Be careful when you cast stones without the level of knowledge required to make a sound judgement and always look at the broader picture, it can be helpful! I am sure that KM recognises that some experiance in and around the ground and changing room will be very useful, we see it with our skipper from my observations. There are many great players who have made poor judgments on many occasions and have been instrumental in their teams success, BEST, GAZZA, CANTONA and indeed one of our very own who we rightly acknowledged with a statue.

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Trojan added 16:10 - Aug 10 Oh and do we really think the club is just not trying to get a striker!!
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Marcus added 18:31 - Aug 10 A solid quad member who can provide leadership and experience both on and off the pitch. Will be good to have someone with that level of experience around the club, I get the feeling he's a future coach and he has unfinished business at the club where he started his career. As far as a striker goes - it's one option, the other is having a squad where goals come from all angles. I have a feeling KM is building the second option, just need things to click together.

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Linkboy13 added 10:16 - Aug 11 People keep rabbiting on about getting a 20 goal a season striker without naming who he is. Perhaps we should sign two that would definitely mean certain promotion. At present the service into the box is just not good enough. There's no striker out there who's going to guarantee you 15 goals let alone 20 potentially yes but not guaranteed. We would have to spend quite a bit of money to get the right player in and it could be a expensive mistake and McKenna knows this and is probably just waiting for the right man to be available. So come on you armchair coaches start naming a few possibilities who are going to guarantee getting 20 goals a season.

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Class_of_81 added 12:00 - Aug 11 People who don't read about this player need to educate themselves ffs. He “DID NOT” drive that car, he was left in the rear of the car unconscious and the others ran off. He was the scapegoat as the others were seen as higher quality players that could be sold off. This player will benefit us as well as Mowbray did.
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