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, Reims and Rennes 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

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