McKenna: The Majority of the Work's Done But Things Can Come Up Late Friday, 29th Aug 2025 16:11 Town boss Kieran McKenna says the majority of the Blues’ summer transfer work is done following the signings of Marcelino Núñez, Darnell Furlong and Iván Azón, and with Norwegian international Sindre Walle Egeli close to joining the club from FC Nordsjælland, but isn’t entirely ruling out further additions before Monday’s 7pm deadline. Egeli, 19, who is at the club to complete his switch, will be the 11th signing of a summer of great change at Portman Road with a number of established players, including skipper Sam Morsy, having moved on. “I think the majority of the work is done now, for sure,” McKenna said when asked if there might be any more incomings. “You never know incomings or outgoings, things can come up late in the window, but I think the majority of the group is together now and we’ll be glad to get to Monday night.” Is he pleased that signing the likes of Núñez, Furlong, Ázon and, hopefully, Egeli hasn’t dragged on until the final day? “Yes,” he reflected. “It’s late, so I don’t know how many of them are going to have a big, big impact on the game tomorrow, so the reality is that a lot of our additions, certainly the ones this week, but probably the last couple before that [Jens Cajuste and Chuba Akpom], we’re certainly not going to see the best of them or anything like that until after the international break. “It means that we’re going into the weekend with pretty good clarity on where we’re at in a couple of positions and barring possible late bits of movement, we know that we have the majority of the squad here that we believe can be successful. “We also know that that’s a squad that’s coming together really late. A lot of the boys are going to be flying to different parts of the world on Monday, so we know there are some challenges attached to that. “But I guess it’s best to have at least some players in the building today to meet their other teammates, to get the introductions done and then everyone’s focus then is just towards Saturday. “And then the group will break up a little bit, but hopefully with a good result that means when we come back after the international break, we’re really ready to come together as a group and push on.” Questioned again on further additions, he added: “I don’t think you can rule it out. The depth is good at the moment, so any changes probably would involve outgoings at this point. Our numbers are looking pretty healthy now. “We’ll see how the next few days go, I don’t think you can ever rule anything out because you don’t know what might come in either direction on the last few days.” Town now have 30 players who qualify for the 25-man squad with Egeli under 21 and Conor Townsend, who is out for the season, unlikely to be registered. McKenna admits that some trimming will have to be done before Monday evening: “Yes, we’d expect that. There will likely be a couple of outgoings, of course, we have some injured players as well. “There’s still work to do in that department and it’s really important that we try and be on Monday night with just the right balance. “If you want to be one of the strongest teams in the division and teams are going to play against you with a lot of motivation and a lot of discipline and try and make it hard for you, then you need really good options in every position on the pitch. “We want to arrive at Monday night with that, but also not with too many that players are in a queue of three or four trying to wait for their moment on the pitch. “It needs to be tight enough that everyone feels like they’re not too far away from an opportunity.” Elkan Baggott seems certain to be moved on on loan and Ali Al-Hamadi, Harry Clarke and Cameron Humphreys also among those who might be sent out with all three over their injuries after the international break. McKenna says he’ll be pleased once the window is closed and he can get on with the job of developing what’s essentially a new team. “Yes, that’s the truth of it, no two ways about that,” he continued. “The focus is on Monday but even in the press conferences it would be nice not to speak about that, but that’s by the by really. “It’s important to have the players here, know the profile of the players we’re going to have here and then work on building the relationships and utilising the strengths of the different players that we have in the building. “Of course, we’ve been trying to do that over the last few weeks, but when there’s uncertainty around, it’s more difficult. “Once we have everybody in, we can really map out the squad and where we’re going to try and utilise people in different ways. “And from a mindset in the group, the reality is that it’s much, much better for the group whenever there’s only people in the dressing room who are 100 per cent in and are going to be here for the remainder of the season or at least until January, with the shared goal of trying to have a really successful season for the club. I think both on the pitch and in the group, it will be better come Monday night.”
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