Town boss Kieran McKenna says midfielder Panutche Camara will go out on loan along with Elkan Baggott, while striker Joe Pigott is in discussions with the club regarding his future.

Camara, Baggott and skipper Sam Morsy were absent from the Town teams at Needham Market, while Pigott hasn’t been involved with the squad in pre-season so far.

Regarding Morsy’s absence, McKenna said: “We’re over 20 outfielders in terms of our training numbers. Samy Morsy’s trained really well, just wanted to look at other players in the game tonight, to be fair.

“He’s played lots of football, he trained really well all week, so he had a good session at the training ground this morning and it gave us a chance to look at some of the other players.”

Quizzed on Camara, who joined the club last summer from Plymouth for £500,000 but endured a frustrating season due to injury, McKenna said the Guinea-Bissau international is in talks about a loan move away from Town.

“Panutche, we spoke to in the summer,” he said. “We think as a football club it’s going to be best for him to go on loan this season to get minutes having missed minutes last year, the first half of last season with injury but then in the second half of the season with other players coming in and doing really well.

“He’s been training really well, is a top professional, is training really well but we have spoken to him earlier in the summer about going on loan this season, so he’s in communication, we’ve had communication from some different clubs. That process is ongoing at the moment.

“And the same with Elkan Baggott. We think it’s going to be best for Elkan to get minutes on loan this season and Elkan is in agreement with that plan and we’ve had communication with different clubs, nothing very imminent, but that will hopefully get sorted in the next few weeks.

“There’s interest from different levels for both. There’s nothing agreed, communication comes through the club, sometimes it comes through their representatives as well. So, we’ll look at each case at it comes.”

Regarding Pigott, who has a year left on his Town contract having spent last season on loan at Portsmouth, he added: “Joe’s in discussion with the club. I’ve not been involved in those discussions. Joe’s in discussions with the club about the best way forward.

“He’s had a season out on loan this year and he’s discussing with the club what’s going to be the best option for this year.”

In terms of incomings, McKenna was keeping his cards close to his chest.

“No, nothing very imminent, as far as I know in terms of anything coming in this weekend,” he said.

“The club’s still working very, very hard. I think [CEO] Mark [Ashton] has spoken about it in terms of the market and I don’t have much to add on it really.

“I’m focusing on the players here at the moment, we know that we want to strengthen and until that point I’ll work hard with the players that we have training with us at the moment.”

Ashton said earlier this week that he felt it's a slow market and McKenna was asked whether patience might be virtue this summer.

“I think that’s fair to say,” he reflected. “We have a strong squad, we have plenty of bodies, so we don’t need bodies in the door, we have a strong team and strong squad and we want to improve the squad and we want to improve the team.

“Of course, those players aren’t always immediately available and the club have to do the work that their doing.

“We just have to focus on what’s ahead. We have four weeks for the season to start and the players and the staff in the building need to focus and work every day to be ready for the first game and set ourselves up for a good season.

“And as and when players come into the group or leave the group, that will happen when it happens and our focus is just on the next training session and the next game ahead of us.”

Photo: Matchday Images

ITFC_Singapore added 23:16 - Jul 7 No great surprises there. Still hoping Baggott will be a decent prospect to come through in a year or two but remains to be seen. Piggott i always liked, but accept that ship has sailed. And Camara i think it's best for him to go and play somewhere. Can't see him getting ahead of the 'Big 4' of Morsy, Evans, Taylor and Mass and if there was a slot then hopefully Cam Humphreys will fill that. Naturally we haven't seen the best (Or anything at all really) of Pan, but from his tape he seemed an energy player who carried the ball well between the boxes (Albeit couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo when shooting), but we are well stocked with that kind of player and our ball carrying tends to be done in the wider positions. I wouldn't be surprised if we never see Pan in an Ipswich kit again and we sel him back to Plymouth. So smart all round i'd say.

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runningout added 23:18 - Jul 7 whoever gets Camera on loan will be smiling
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Gforce added 23:28 - Jul 7 I'd prefer us to keep Camara and send Ball out on loan instead.Different types of player I know,but Camara has far more quality.
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Simonds92 added 23:32 - Jul 7 Ne wise to ensure there's a recall option in January. A gully fit Camara gives us something different and legs in the middle of the pitch could be crucial this season.
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Tractor_Boy_Tommy added 23:49 - Jul 7 Will never see Baggott in a town shirt again Not bothered about Pigott was never going to work here But Camara I'm abit disappointed about think he could do a job here
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GiveusaWave added 23:53 - Jul 7 Agree Simonds92- a recall option for Camara is a must. Can understand the need to get him fit and playing, so think a loan deal is a wise move. Getting him on loan would be a great bit of transfer business for the club he goes too....
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Tractor_Boy_in_HK added 07:32 - Jul 8 @GForce - Ball is a different type of player, and can play centre half. He's also got bags of experience in the Championship. I'd keep him. Camara needs match fitness so it's a good move to loan him out, with a recall. Have a feeling if he does well we'll recall and sell him in January. Hindsight is 20/20 but what a bad move for Baggott to leave Gillingham last season. Not getting into an average Cheltenham team really set him back, and he may have to end up going back to L2 this season to guarantee minutes. Not the worst of moves. Pigott, well let's hope we don't have to pay him to leave.

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Stato added 08:33 - Jul 8 Camara only being loaned as a way of getting his sale price up towards £500k and he'll be loaned to a L1 club as that is his standard. He'll be sold in Jan to boost our transfer kitty. Piggott L1 player of no real value so most likely we'll pay up his contract and he'll leave by mutual consent. Baggott has an important season in front of him but I'm guessing his loan loan club will be from League 2

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Europablue added 08:51 - Jul 8 I really hope Baggott gets into the team eventually. Like others have said it's a shame his last loan didn't work out. I think he needs to go to League One to have a future with us. He'd probably do well in League Two.
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Bazza8564 added 08:53 - Jul 8 A little surprised about Camara, but KM knows whats required so fair enough, we have 6 in there including Ball. The others are no surprise at all to be fair
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warfarinman69 added 09:16 - Jul 8 Loans make sense. Hopefully we can just release Piggott at no cost. Ball will stay, as he has started friendlies at centre back and is good cover there. I must be watching a different player to many on here. Apart from a couple of indifferent games towards the end of the season, whenever he came on he looked class and played with calm confidence. Think he's McKenna's sort of player

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Naylorsrightboot added 09:54 - Jul 8 I think Camara could do a job here. Much more energy than Ball and Evans put together. Think it's a bit of a waste. We badly need some strikers in. KM saying he is happy with the team can't be right. We only have Ladapo up top and he can't do it alone. Also, strange to leave your captain at home.
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blues1 added 10:59 - Jul 8 Boss man My god,,what rubbish. Camara is a quality player. The only reason he's being loaned out is to get ga.e time, as his time could be limited here to start with, having been out injured most of last season. Once he's fit he'll come back and challenge for a place in the team? How on earth do you think sending him out on loan is going to put value on him when he'd have less time left on his contract, when he returned here?

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Monkey_Blue added 11:29 - Jul 8 Pigott clearly having talks about mutual termination as happened with Harper. I'm surprised as, and I may be wrong the new ownership said they wouldn't be paying players off. Surely someone would take him on a free? He must be on big league one level wages. It's hard to judge Camara as he had such an injury affected year…. I think his ship has sailed tbh. Baggott needs minutes though and as long as he's a regular a season on league one would do him the world of good.

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Positive_Vibes added 11:50 - Jul 8 I've never rated Piggott. He's only really had one season where his goal tally was good. He's not done enough since. I trust that we're working very hard on trying to find better strikers than we have in the building. If we can't find the right striker to bring in on a permanent, basis I can see us dipping into the loan market. We might be able to get an out of favour Premier League striker in, or some young upcoming talent that is currently outside of Championship budgets. Sending the other two on loan makes perfect sense for both them and us.

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Positive_Vibes added 11:57 - Jul 8 Just a question, whilst Morsey and Mass were brilliant for us last year, they are no spring chickens and won't go on for too many seasons to come. Are our current crop of central midfielders strong enough to fill their boots? I'm hoping Jack Taylor will show us some class and potentially be a captain in waiting.
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SouperJim added 17:05 - Jul 8 Anybody who prefers Camara to Ball, either on strength of their career before they came to us or how they've performed to date in an Ipswich shirt, needs their head testing. Camara pulled out of a 60/40 on halfway at Felixstowe. I'm not convinced he's ever going to come back from his injury. Ball on the other hand oozes class and very rarely makes an error or wastes the ball. He's versatile, proven at this level and is just the kind of player we need in our squad for a long hard season.

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Linkboy13 added 10:39 - Jul 9 Yes agree Souper Jim Camara looks way off being fit for first team football. It's not rocket science McKenna works with the players and knows whose fit and not fit. Ball is the sort of player that's not going to excite the crowd but is very steady and keeps the game simple and was starting to look the part at the end of last season. Whether Ball and Evans are adequate back up in the championship I'm not sure but both have experience in that department. Humphreys needs to develop more physically to go along with his technical ability.

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