Town manager Kieran McKenna has flat-batted links with Fulham midfielder Tom Cairney and Kendry Paez, however, his Cottagers counterpart Marco Silva confirmed the Blues’ interest in his 34-year-old club captain.

An approach has been made to the West Londoners regarding Cairney, who is out of contract at the end of the season.

Speaking at his press conference this afternoon, Silva confirmed that Town are keen on the former Hull City and Blackburn Rovers man.

“The interest from Ipswich is there,” he said. “I didn't have any conversation with Tom about it yet.”

Fulham are understood to be in no hurry to offload Cairney, who has been at the club since 2015.

On Cairney being offered a new deal at Craven Cottage, he added: “If he’s going to have another season at the same level from him and if he has to do [another] contract with our football club, why not again?

“We have time to talk about it and if this comes on the table, I don’t see any reasons why he cannot do it again.”

Quizzed on the interest in Cairney at his press conference, Blues boss McKenna was typically keeping his cards close to his chest.

“You’ve been with me for a long time now!” he said when asked if he could say anything by TWTD. “No, a Fulham player, nothing appropriate for us to comment on that.”

Asked whether the same was the case with Chelsea youngster Kendry Paez, McKenna said: “You presume right!”.

We understand there is nothing in claims that the 18-year-old Ecuadorian is set to join the Blues on loan once recalled from a spell at Strasbourg.

Turning to his overall transfer window plans, the Town boss said: “I think it’s clear that there’s been a big, big turnover here over the last couple of years and a really big transition this summer in terms of important players leaving the club.

“There’s no doubt that it’s taken some time to bed everyone in and players to settle into the club and into their roles and into the demands of this season and all those things.

“And I feel like we’ve progressed in that over the last few months, so there’s certainly a case of going into this window not wanting to start from scratch with that again.

“We want to build on some of the positives and momentum that we’ve worked really, really hard to get over the last few months.

“That’s one big priority going into the window and the other priority is that we’ve got 21 league games left and a big ambition there and we’ve fought to put ourselves in a decent position going into that stage of the season and if there are improvements that we can make to any area of the team, then we’re open to doing so.

“At the same time, we have a good squad, good depth, there’s not a huge list of players out there who are better than the players that we have that could come in and settle into the team quickly and that would be attainable.

“Those that do fall into that category, of course, we’re assessing, having conversations with and we’ll see what the next three weeks brings.

“In terms of what we have at the moment, there are not really many huge, pressing needs or big holes in the squad that we need to have somebody in next week or we won’t be competitive against Blackburn or against Bristol City.

“But the January window does always throw up some different options and some things that can give you a push in the second half of the season.

“Honestly, we’re weighing-up all those things, a lot of different things, the exits have been a big part of that as well and trying to get the squad numbers appropriate, so Cameron [Humphreys] has left and there might be one more loan outgoing over the weekend if we come through the game well.

“And the club is speaking to players that are of interest of that might improve us and we’ll keep our foot to the floor with that over the next few weeks.

“But, as far as I’m concerned, I don’t want us to do business for the sake of doing business, it’s if something can really improve our chances of having the outcome that we want this year or be a really good signing for the club for the future, then, of course, we’re interested.

“But the group of players that we have here now I believe in and I think we have the nucleus of a really good squad and it isn’t too far away from where we’d want to be.

“There’s been lots of discussions and lots of thinking and we’ll see where we are at the end of January. Lots of things can happen in the next three weeks and we’ll try and end up with the right balance and the right dynamic in the squad to give us the best chance.”

Might a striker be in his January plans, he said: “We have three, two in terms of Ivan [Azon] and George [Hirst] and Chuba [Akpom], who has played as a striker in his career, played as a striker in the last game and scored a goal.

“I believe in the quality of those boys and the different qualities that they can bring to the team.

“Every team wants more goals in the squad. We haven’t scored as many goals as we would have liked probably as a team and maybe we should have in terms of the chances we’ve created at times.

“But I believe we have players in the building who can score goals and they will score goals in the second half of the year.

“But I think pretty much every team in world football, if you can add more goals to your squad in January, you’re always going to look to do that, whether that can be wide forwards, centre forwards, people who play in between the lines, I think adding more goals to the group is always going to be something that you look at and we’re no different on that.”

Photo: Reuters