McKenna: We Knew We Had to Invest to Be Competitive Thursday, 12th Sep 2024 16:41 Boss Kieran McKenna believes it was vital that the Blues spent big to strengthen the squad this summer and that the team is in a process which will see them grow in the weeks and months to come. Perhaps surprisingly, Saturday’s opponents Brighton (£153.5 million) and Town (£107.6 million) were the net biggest spenders in the Premier League over the summer. And McKenna says it was vital that Town received that investment given their swift elevation from League One. “Of course, that's a real positive and that's not my decision, that's not just [CEO] Mark [Ashton]’s decision,” he said. “That’s with the board, with Mark, with myself, everyone's decision, and the realism to realise that to climb as we had climbed and to have brought the group to where we've brought them to [we’d needed to invest this summer]. “It's not my area, but maybe George Hirst, Ali Al-Hamadi, one and a bit million on a handful of players to go to the Premier League, where our finances were with our wage budget last year, was an incredible achievement by the football club. “So we knew that we had to invest this summer. We knew that to be competitive in the Premier League now, not investing from where we were coming from would be impossible. “We were not coming from the same position in terms of Southampton and Leicester even as newly promoted teams who'd had a decade in the Premier League before that. Leicester coming with a squad that had achieved European football a season and a half before and still have a lot of those players were coming at it from a completely different position. “So we knew that to be in any way competitive this season, to bring in new players, and to spend money was an essential requirement, really. The board were fully supportive of that, and so was Mark. “Again, what we've tried to do with that is invest the money in a way that strengthens us for now, but also we think strengthens the club for the future and protects the club for the future. “I've said before, I think in the players that we've spent our more significant fees on when you look at, Liam Delap or Jacob Greaves or Omari Hutchinson, and you see young British players of that age playing in the Premier League week out and performing how they are. “Barring hopefully anything from an injury perspective, you know that the money's been invested really, really well and the future of the club is enhanced by investments like that. “And that's what we always tried to do when we were in League One. We spent, it was a big story at the time, we spent a million pounds on Leif Davis, and I think it was our only signing of that sort of size that summer, but it was seen as a massive outlay. “But if you invest in the right profile and you give them the right exposure and development, then we know that if we wanted a return on that investment now, it would be a significantly higher fee, to say the least. “We know the journey that we've been on, the climb that we've made in terms of the leagues and the finances of the Premier League on completely different levels. So, to invest in the squad this year was really essential and we're really happy with how we've done that. “On top of that, we also know we have, I'd imagine, the lowest wage budget in the league by a long way, the lowest squad value in the league by a long way and all those things. “We know that. The fact that we've brought in some players isn't what's going to make us have a good season this year. We've got some other gaps to make up and that's going to be made up by our culture, by our environment, by how we work day to day, by how we mould the players that we have into a team. “By how we get the best out of them individually, by how we maximise our game plans on our approach for every game. That's how we're going to have to make up the rest of the gap to this league and that's what we're trying to do. “And that's what we had to do in the Championship as well. But now we have to do it on a much, much, much bigger scale. But that's a great challenge for the club, for me, for the players and it's one I'm enjoying.” McKenna is pleased the transfer window is now closed and he can concentrate on working with his squad. “I will say this time I do feel more relaxed after the window was shut, for sure,” he reflected. “It was such a busy period for us as a football club and our infrastructure where we've come from means that that's shared across not that many people, that burden of bringing players in and helping players move on and things like that. “So it was a really busy summer and it's nice now to have been, today for the first time really, able to look in the eyes of our squad and know that this is the group that we're working with till at least January. “Integrating new players is on a practical level. It's a challenge. It's housing to start with. There are not that many houses on the market in Suffolk, so you have lots of practical things like that, such as helping families settle in, nurseries, and schools. “And again, from an infrastructure perspective, that work is spread between not as many people here as it would be at Manchester United, so it means that everyone has to work really, really hard. “Of course, we want to get the players up to speed from a tactical point of view, so that means lots more individual sit downs. “I'm going from this press conference to one with one of the new players to go through extra video clips of how we can integrate them in the team, what role we see them in, what the details we will look from them in and out of possession. A lot more work like that. “And it's going to be a process over time, but again, the things that are positive here are that we've got a fantastic group of players who help with that integration. We've got over 50 per cent of the squad who are with us in the Championship. Maybe, I don't know the numbers, but maybe close to 50 per cent were with us in League One, so they've been here for a good amount of time. “They know the ins and outs of how we work, what we do well, and they're really helping with that with the new players, with integrating them. “The characters that we've brought in the building is a big help, bringing in people who I think will fit in and add to the culture, who are hungry to be here. “It was the top of my checklist this transfer window, as it has been in every transfer window, and we've done that. So that means that the people you're bringing in the building are more likely to settle in. And bringing in profiles that fit how you play. “Thankfully, when we're bringing in players, we're not usually asking them to do something drastically, drastically different from their best attributes that were the reason why we wanted to bring them here. So that helps the football integration a little bit as well. “It's busy, it's not going to happen overnight. The last game we had, I don't know, maybe three, four Premier League debuts across the squad. So far, we’ve had maybe 14, 15 full Premier League debuts or something. “We're in a process and I think we're going to get better week by week if we take the right approach. “And I'm sure it's good that we've been already pretty competitive in our games, and we'll try and be this weekend. “But I think if we stick on the right path and stick together, then I think in the course of weeks and months, I think we'll be in a much better place than we are even now.”
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