Town manager Kieran McKenna believes Aro Muric could still have a part to play at Portman Road as he closes in on a return from injury, while revealing Scotland international Cieran Slicker wasn’t on the pre-season trip to Austria as he is looking at loan options.

Muric, 26, joined the Blues last summer from Burnley for an initial £10 million plus a further £5 million in add-ons, but endured a tough season, making a number of high profile and costly mistakes before picking up a shoulder injury which required surgery in March.

The Kosovo international was in Austria with the rest of the squad but wasn’t involved in this afternoon’s friendly against Blau-Weiß Linz, which the Blues won 4-1.

“Aro’s just still working back from his injury, really,” McKenna explained. “He’s back in some training now but is still getting there. He’s really not far away, so the [goalkeeping] unit looks really strong.”

While Alex Palmer and Christian Walton played a half each against the Austrian Bundesliga side, McKenna had praise for his newest keeper, David Button, 36, who joined on a one-year deal earlier this month, while another of his glovesmen stayed behind in Suffolk.

“David Button’s had a great impact, I have to say, a top, top goalkeeper, he has made a great impact straight away,” McKenna said.

“Cieran Slicker’s looking at options for loans, so all being well, with David coming in, the plan will be for him to go and get some first-team experience this year, which he’s definitely ready for and get some games.

“We’ll see how that pans out over the next few weeks but it feels like a really strong department at the moment.”

Quizzed on whether Muric could still play a part going forward, despite speculation he could move on this summer, McKenna said: “Everything’s possible. Aro’s a really, really talented goalkeeper. He showed that in spells last year and in certain games last year.

“We have four senior goalkeepers at the moment and pre-season is there for people to compete and we need at least three really strong senior goalkeepers in the building. We’ll see how it plays out over the remainder of the summer.”

Photo: Matchday Images

Portman_Pie added 21:54 - Jul 19 Dear oh dear. I was hoping his absence indicated he was somewhere in Europe negotiating a move.
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Bluearmy_81 added 21:56 - Jul 19 “Close to leaving” would have been better to read. Awful keeper with Sunday league level errors of judgement at time (Bournemouth at home.) Inexcusable. Cant afford his mistakes and ineptitude
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dirtydingusmagee added 22:08 - Jul 19 Nooooo
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Writtleblue added 22:09 - Jul 19 Oh no.
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LancsBlue added 22:52 - Jul 19 Muric is potentially by far the best of our goalkeepers. He made some dreadful and costly errors and we can't hide away from that. However, without going into detail of his track record, there is a reason why we paid good money for him. He will have learned from his mistakes and McKenna will trust his goalkeeping team to get the best out of him and to get a good return on the club's investment in him. I see little point in taking a big loss on him and letting someone else reap the benefit of the work that will have been going on to restore his confidence and to achieve greater consistency.

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RobsonWark added 23:04 - Jul 19 We do not want to see Muric in a Town shirt ever again. He is a bad apple and not a good example for fans off the pitch - driving with no car insurance and talking on his mobile while driving through Ipswich. Does he have to kill someone before you wake up? He was your downfall last season as despite all his errors you still wouldn't drop him. Don't let him be your downfall again this season. Only a fool does not learn from his mistakes - don't be that fool.

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algarvefan added 23:36 - Jul 19 Sometimes things in life just don't work out, he is an international goalkeeper and proved on occasions he could be an excellent keeper, but he lost all his confidence and his errors last season were dreadful and costly. Only the clubs training staff will know where he is at currently and if he can be trusted in games?? I think for him and for Ipswich if he can get a move to another club it will probably be of benefit to him and the club.

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armchaircritic59 added 23:43 - Jul 19 Whatever he may or may not think, I hardly think KM's going to say in public, the guy's a liability, I'll be glad to see the back of him. That would really encourage another club! For what's it worth, I do think there's a proper keeper in there, obviously just needs to iron out most of the errors. I say most, every keeper makes errors, just some make less than most. However his off field problems don't show him in a good light either. Probably needs to go elsewhere, and get his act together.

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ThaiBlue added 01:11 - Jul 20 1 of the worst keepers I've seen,Burnley were laughing there nuts off when we signed him as he made big mistakes there,liability.
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number8 added 07:29 - Jul 20 James Trafford made loads of errors when in the premier league and was dropped. After one season, there is talk of Man City wanting to buy him back for 40 million. No position is more volatile than the keeping position. What’s best in this situation I have no idea but we do have decent keeper in the squad so hopefully in safe hands. As for strikers and centre mids……………..

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johnwarksshorts added 08:13 - Jul 20 Give the guy a chance.
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WestSussexBlue added 08:35 - Jul 20 Nothing in McKenna’s says he’s likely to feature for Town. Reading between the lines he’s close to a return to playing football, nothing to say that’s here at Town however. Decent keeper but errors are never far away unfortunately.
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superblues9 added 08:41 - Jul 20 Staffers me we paid so much for him when he's picked up decent keepers for very low fees in Walton palmer and slicker I thought at time who's this guy and wow that's a lot of money just by reading stats and track record and fact we always had Walton anyway but as all of us trusted McKenna but have to accept he made a mistake with this guy
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ITFCSG added 08:45 - Jul 20 It beggars belief not to ditch Muric at this time, his lack of footballing IQ and being a loner = a failure, there’s a reason why he failed to be a regular in any of the 7 (seven!) clubs he was at before us. So what if he was in the PFA Championship Team of the Year? Bournemouth H was classic Muric but Southampton game at home was the last straw. Look in at his blur, expressionless face after c0cking up was the last straw for me. I bet many of his teammates felt that way too. It’s time to cut our losses and get rid.

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trulyblue added 09:11 - Jul 20 Made some mistakes..... But, like it or not, he also had the best stats of the 3 keepers last.
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ChrisR added 09:26 - Jul 20 Thought we were only signing"good guys" Muric is never going to recover from last seasons dreadful errors , does not want to be here anyway , please go and stay gone.
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Rimsy added 09:31 - Jul 20 I think what McK is saying is Muric will be moving on once he's over his op. Muric won't want to stay anyway as there's no way he'll be no.1. He'd just be warming the bench all season.
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blues1 added 09:42 - Jul 20 Afraid most of the comments on here are typical of how crap some of our fans are. Still slagging the guy off bcse of a few bad errors he made last season. As some1 else said, Trafford was awful 2 years ago in the pl, last season he was excellent. And now man city are trying to sign him. Did the Burnley fans give him a chance? Absolutely. But our fans won't do that for Muric. No, have to hold on to previous mistakes. Like none of you have ever made mistakes in ur life. And typical of town fans that they only concentrate on the errors he made, and ignore the many good things he did. He wasnt joint 4th in the pl for saves made, at the time he was left out, for no reason. And no, im by no means excusing the errors he made. Certainly a couple of them were poor. But as 1 poster on here has suggested jes a Sunday morning keeper? Yer, of course. Must be why hes 1st choice for his country. Do I think he will still be here next season, or if he is will play? Probably not. And actually would prob be best for him to move on, get away from a section of our fans who simply habe to jabe a scapegoat. Wonder who will get take over that mantle this coming season.

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Bazza8564 added 09:46 - Jul 20 He will move on and KM will accept defeat. It just hasnt worked out With Walton having only a year left on his deal (we've been extending it by 12 months repeatedly) it wouldn't surprise me at all to see him move as well Slicks is going out on loan,, and then recruit another keeper. Once Omari s money lands, that might be a priority once the MF is sorted. With Newcastle constantly looking at keepers, wouldnt it be great to bring Nick Pope home. And yes I know the wages make that impossible presently, but a loan with an obligation......

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Bluearmy_81 added 10:05 - Jul 20 Cherry picking stats blues1! Also the most errors. He’s so bad I began to wonder if he threw games deliberately in a segars/grobelaar scenario. The mistakes seemed too obvious and manufactured to me. Bournemouth at home was Sunday league keeping, there’s two golden rules as a keeper, don’t come out unless you can take/claim the ball, and don’t come out if there are defenders covering. He broke both rules in one goal with Bournemouths first. I learnt this rule at 7 and would never have come out to that ball as a 7 year old! Doesn’t he know this?!? Plus always looked like he couldn’t give 2 fcuks either way when he handed the game to the opposition

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ipswichone added 10:41 - Jul 20 Obvious joke to put muric between the sticks at Ipswich. Personally think he will be more suited to league one or two.at least there he can make mistakes, and it will be more of the norm there
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Linkboy13 added 12:23 - Jul 20 I think McKenna stuck behind him rather to long but gave in to pressure from his defence who could no longer trust what he was going to do next that's the message i heard from a member of the coaching staff good stats though if you like that sort of thing.
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TimmyH added 12:39 - Jul 20 He'd probably more at ease in the Championship as we know the quality of the attacking and pressing from the opposition would be far less and know he would have more time on the ball to pass out and more time even with communication with the defence. Saying that
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TimmyH added 12:40 - Jul 20 'Saying that I wouldn't want him starting'...
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CobboldCrusty added 14:10 - Jul 20 If he sticks around there's a good keeper somewhere in Muric. He has a far higher ceiling than Walton (who I like). Good instinctive shot stopper, agile despite his size, commands box well. I wonder if he is going to be content to sit on the bench behind Palmer though. blues1 I do think your reaction is a bit OTT though. Obviously people are going to be frustrated by Muric after some of the calamities and behaviour. To tell you the truth, despite the positive attiributes I've listed above, I think he lacked game intelligence at points. I've explained elsewhere that I think he doesn't instinctively know how to address the ball in possession and makes it easy for teams to close us down by demonstrating which foot he will use to play the ball. McKenna will know that better than any of us though and if he stays he'll make it work. But I guess he'll go... we'll get more money for him than Walton, who would be content with the number 2 slot behind Palmer.

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