Boss Kieran McKenna admits he’s virtually putting a new side together given the changes which have taken place at Town over the summer.

The Blues have lost a number of players who were core members of the team which won back-to-back promotions and played in the Premier League, skipper Sam Morsy, fellow midfielder Massimo Luongo, defenders Cameron Burgess and Axel Tuanzebe, and forwards Omari Hutchinson, Nathan Broadhead and Liam Delap.

McKenna is integrating new additions Kasey McAteer, Chuba Akpom, Azor Matusiwa, Ashley Young, Cedric Kipre and David Button, while Jens Cajuste has returned from Napoli for a second season on loan and with further signings expected before the deadline a week on Monday.

The pace of change is illustrated by Leif Davis being the only player to have started both today’s 1-0 defeat at Preston and the Blues’ last match at Deepdale, the 3-2 loss in January 2024.

“That’s the reality of it,” McKenna said when it was put to him that he is essentially having to build a new team. “That’s come around pretty quickly, but I think the cycle of a team goes a lot quicker when you have the journey that we have had.

“If you stay in the same division, have maybe one promotion then you keep the team together for maybe three, four, five, six years sometimes at times.

“But the scale of what we went through meant that the cycle of that team that did terrificly and we loved being a part of came around quicker than we would have anticipated for a lot of different reasons, not that we wouldn’t have wanted because part of it is the success of the club.

“The situation is what it is. We have a new team to build. We’re not where we want to be yet with the team. The situation, the expectation on us is different and I understand and we expect that, but the reality is that it’s a new group and a group that hasn’t been together that long, they haven’t played together in terms of starting matches very much.

“The reality is they haven’t won together very much either because if we’re talking about the players who joined us last year, they were trying to compete in the toughest league in the world at a brand new club for the first time at that level for nearly everyone.

“There’s a lot of work to do and we’re going to be trying to do that work under a fair bit of expectation. But that’s the reality and that’s what we have to step up to. We have to bring this team together, produce a team that we can be proud of, that we can be successful with and we need to do it as quickly as humanly possible.”

McKenna admits it’s a big week for the club as the Blues look to add to the squad, but with his mind still on the defeat to the Lilywhites.

“I think so,” he reflected. “I can’t really put my head to the recruitment side at the moment because I’m frustrated that we’ve not delivered better as a group with what we have here.

“I know the reasons for that, but it’s not about making excuses, it’s about keeping the demand strong on ourselves that we need to produce better.

“There are some pieces to the squad that we’d like to add to to really be as complete and as strong as we’d like to be and hopefully we can make some progress on that this week.

“We’ve got to make sure the numbers are right and deep enough that we have the cover, but not too deep that people are going to feel detached from what’s going on on the pitch.

“We’ve got to get all the right over the next nine or 10 days that’s left, but my overriding thought at the moment is on the group that’s here and how we push to get the most out of ourselves.”

Photo: TWTD

darkhorse28 added 20:57 - Aug 23 He hasn’t built the last team he built yet. The problem is. The foundation of the legacy team, was built by players dropping down well below their level, to play for Cook. There are only two people responsible for ins/outs and the strategy since. Ashton and KM. £170 million.., and the team dynamic is SO poor, we wouldn’t lace the 23/24 teams boots.
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pablo123 added 21:10 - Aug 23 Anyone else would have been sacked long ago !! I said at Xmas he should go and was vilified on here for it !!! We'll it s getting worse and worse
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tetchris added 21:34 - Aug 23 Codswallop!
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surgery added 21:47 - Aug 23 Fair enough, but doesn’t stop this new team hitting the target though does it?
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herfie added 21:50 - Aug 23 The silence from MA is deafening! When all in the garden was rosey, he was full-on; in less than rosy times the need to hear from him is probably greater. Come on MA, communicate with those whose support you need more than ever!
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ArnieM added 22:23 - Aug 23 I think MA would ditch McKenna to save his own skin from the owners searching questions.
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Denny32 added 22:24 - Aug 23 Is he for real...??shur in the starting line up..we only had 1 new signing ..its practically the same players as last season ..excuses excuse
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groundhog added 22:29 - Aug 23 So far all of McKenna's premiership signings (bar 2 which have moved on) look like being overpriced failures.
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howsey51 added 22:32 - Aug 23 Hirst was in the team that got us promoted (twice) back 5 have played together a lot now and are easily good enough for the top end of this division. That leaves the middle 5. This is where we have had by far the most flux and.. spent the most (all) the money. For all that- we just don’t look individually or as a team to have a creative unit there. Clearly really missed morsy today, but I do think our recruitment, particularly the 3 behind the striker has not worked out. Almost too late now, but KM will have to work out something fast. A lot of it is belief. A lot of us are all starting to lose belief and I’m sure that goes for the players too. It took a long time to build the mentality that we thought we could get something even late in games. We need to find it fast.

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HighgateBlue added 23:18 - Aug 23 That's a lot of words to say F all. We've spent an awful lot of money to be so much worse. Mind-boggling stuff.
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Landlord added 23:38 - Aug 23 Think he needs to start by introducing them to each other first as they play like total strangers
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Blue_In_Boston added 05:58 - Aug 24 Grubbyoik...you talk about Morsy, respect and contracts. Have you already forgot that he jumped ship when it suited him for financial gain?
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