Blues boss Kieran McKenna has spoken about the club setting its sights further afield when it came to recruitment this summer having previously concentrated on the domestic market.

This close season has seen Town sign Azor Matisuwa and Cedric Kipre from French clubs, Rennes and Reims respectively, the latter on loan, then towards the end of the window Ivan Azon joined from Serie A Como, also on loan, while Jens Cajuste, last summer’s only overseas addition, rejoined for a second season from another Italian side, Napoli.

A week ago, the Blues broke the record for a fee paid by a Championship club when they signed 19-year-old Norwegian forward Sindre Walle Egeli from FC Nordsjælland in Denmark for £17.5 million.

Speaking in an interview with TownTV alongside chairman and CEO Mark Ashton, McKenna was asked by Blues legend Matt Holland whether that was simply down to having a wider scouting network.

“I think it’s always been a goal and a target really over the last few years, but catching up with time is a big challenge because when you get promoted two seasons in a row, one, it’s hard to build the infrastructure for your recruitment, two, it’s hard to bring new players in to a new league all the time when it’s your first year in that league,” he said.

“That’s probably slowed that process as well, as averse to if we were maybe going into our third season in the Championship or, and I’d like to think not, our seventh season in League One as a club. You have more time to build those things and add people to the group who might take a little bit of time to adjust.

“I think we have known that’s an area that we’ve needed to work to improve at the club. I think to establish in the Premier League now, it’s almost impossible to do without a really, really good international recruitment process because of the value that’s possible in some of those markets, as against the British markets.

“Over the journey we weren’t there in terms of the infrastructure. I still think we’ve got a lot to do to be where we want to be, but those processes are coming into play a little bit more, so it’s meant that our knowledge, our connections, our eyes are stronger than they were and we’ve been able to bring in some players from those markets.”

Having brought in more players than anticipated as more moved on than had been expected, McKenna now has to integrate them into the team.

“I think that’s definitely a challenge and not just for that player but when they’re coming in with other players who aren’t as familiar, there’s always a challenge to that,” he said.

“It is what it is. It’s the story, it’s the journey of the club. I don’t think we would have had it any other way in terms of our success, but if hadn’t have had that then going into the first game of the season, we’d maybe have seven, eight, nine starters from what we would have had two seasons ago or three seasons ago when you’ve have added one or two players to that starting team as you went along.

“There’s been a helluva swing. Somebody said that in the Preston game, there was one player [Leif Davis] who started who started 18 months before when we played there in the league. That’s a big turnover. A big part of that is inevitable with the changes we’ve had.

“That makes it more of a challenge. But that’s coaching, that’s the job now for us and we’ve got to try and integrate people as quick as we can, get people up to speed as quickly as we can.

“Of course, when you talk about foreign or international markets, it can sometimes take players from those markets a little bit longer, but just in general players moving to a club take time to adjust, that’s not just at Ipswich, that’s universal throughout football, there are lots of stats and studies on it on minutes played from players who arrive at clubs.

“There’s a lot of adjusting to do to a new area, a new house, new training, new teammates, new style, new system and it doesn’t always tend to click into gear straight away.

“I think even the boys that have been here, a lot of them arrived three seasons ago, a lot of them found that as well.

“That’s the challenge, we’ve got to try and help these players, push them, get them together as quickly as possible.

“Even some of those that arrived last summer are maybe in their first season this year starting more games regularly or, even if they were here last year, it’s a completely different league now. We’re a completely different team in this league than we were in the last league.

“So there’s a lot to get to grips with, but it is what it is, that’s the challenge ahead of us, it’s one that we’re working really, really hard at, it’s one that we plan to continue to really tackle head-on and I believe we will see the fruits of the labours.

“I can already see some of it, but really believe we’ll see the fruits of that labour in the weeks and months ahead.”

Meanwhile, McKenna says he’s been impressed with the ongoing work at the new training ground.

“There’s loads going on,” he said. “It’s exciting to see, to be honest. The club has done a great job of boxing it all off so the work that’s going on is well behind some pretty big walls.

“But from the training pitch you can see and hear the cranes every day, so I think we’re going to be able to see the building as it goes up and above the walls. So really exciting on that side.

“There will be a little bit of disruption but really good signs. We know it’s going to be a fantastic facility.

“At the moment everyone’s working round each other the best that they can, but it’s a great thing for every single department of the football club. It’s exciting to see that going up and we’re looking forward to it being finished.”

Photo: TownTV

darkhorse28 added 10:03 - Sep 6 We’ve signed more players with a WBA connection than from abroad…, how we can pretend Kipre has been scouted abroad is borderline Alan Partridge esp comedy gold. TWO foreign signings contracted long term. Time will tell if they’re any good. Is it Seven WBA players…., our entire defence and GK if Townsend’s wasn’t injured. We signed as many defenders with WBA connections as we did foreign players. Meet the new strategy. It’s measurably the same as the old strategy…,we just look clueless strategically. A tacit acceptance of how poor we’ve been, but with still no clear vision, planning or strategy to develop it. We might get lucky, like we did with third choice forward target Delap, but it is luck. We need planning, a vision, a strategy, a coherent plan to build and develop long term, to be elite. It wasn’t luck at Brighton, it was Bloom and Barber, the coach is not even a factor in long term recruitment planning. We have a coach, trying to be a strategic planner, and falling MASSIVELY short in those areas…, and Ashton, who has never ooerst d for a single DAY at that level (successfully) who can’t even see mckennnas glaring weaknesses. It’s like the blind leading the blind (in those areas) SO far away from the standards required it’s frightening. That’s not to take away from what they’re both excellent at either…, they aren’t rubbish, they’re very good. They’re just woeful at stategic planning and squad development medio to long term. We’ve rebuilt an entire squad twice in 12 months . And NO we weren’t a plucky league one club last season. We spent £150 million on 15 players including England regulars, and Serie A winners and still delivered our worst ever season. None of our starting 11 except Leif kicked a ball in league one…, ever. So let’s stop Mark and Kieran had lightingbloyal fans, it’s pathetic, transparent, doesn’t help focus on the real issues. The leadership and strategic vacuum. Meet the new strategy. Same as the old one, but with more chaos.

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number8 added 11:16 - Sep 6 Wow!!! About 6 of them in contract and out of contract wanted to leave and the rest were not deemed good enough. How would you suggest that is navigated without a lot of change? Keeping people that don’t want to be here? Or perhaps a different strategy. Please let us all know it seems you have all the answers.
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blueboy1981 added 12:18 - Sep 6 Didn’t exactly take much to work that out - now you have at last, lets see YOU get your tactics right and some positive results - otherwise you’ll be a League 1 Coach / Manager again …. !!!
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blueboy1981 added 12:22 - Sep 6 ….. Darkhorse28 - they don’t like Truth on here - but you are spot on with your post.
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rossi added 13:52 - Sep 6 Another area requiring improvement is your performance, Kieron. So get out there and start justifying your generous salary.
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number8 added 16:15 - Sep 6 My point being it’s not the truth. We will have to agree to disagree on that one obviously and time will reveal the real truth. At the moment very little time has elapsed of the season. I don’t think the squad situation is ideal but I’m not sure it’s that bleak either. There is a lot of gloom on here when results are not positive and when they become positive the gloom disappears.

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IpswichT62OldBoy added 16:19 - Sep 6 Some people seem to conflate their own views with the truth, actually they are opinions and we are all entitled to them. Sometimes opinions change in response to evidence or shifts in personal beliefs, and that is what debate is for. It is worth remembering that just because we believe something doesn't mean it is true.
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armchaircritic59 added 19:39 - Sep 6 IpswichT62OldBoy, and that isn't just an opinion, it's a fact. However I do have this to say. I, along with a lot of other posters in here, were pepared to give KM another crack at it this season, on account of having built up a fair amount of " credit in the bank ". There is no doubt however that his crown has slipped over the past year. This is the season where as far as I'm concerned at least, it's his chance to put it back on top of his head, or it falls off completely and irreparably. We have 8/9 months to find out. In the meantime, I'm not making any " early " season judgements till we have played 10 league games, so that will be after the Middlesborough away match on Friday 10th October. It seems to be a given that you need 90+ points to have any chance of automatic promotion, going on very recent Championship seasons, that's 2 points a game on average. So by my reckoning we will want to be looking at around 20 points in the bag after that match to be close to that average, which will mean obtaining 17 in the next 6, though even 3 points or so less won't be a disaster. We wil wait and see!

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Gcon added 13:39 - Sep 7 Who needs a budgie when you've got a dark horse. Seems you started following Town once they got to the Prem. Intrigued to know which team you 'supported' before that?
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Cadiar added 21:31 - Sep 7 Darkhorse28 you really are a tedious know all but actually know sweet F A. Like someone else said, go back to following whichever club like Man City that is ruining English football & can you take Blueboy with you. We really don't want you around spewing your ridiculous bile.
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Cadiar added 21:31 - Sep 7 Darkhorse28 you really are a tedious know all but actually know sweet F A. Like someone else said, go back to following whichever club like Man City that is ruining English football & can you take Blueboy with you. We really don't want you around spewing your ridiculous bile.
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