McKenna on Chaplin/Woolfenden reports, plus 'gut feeling' on end

Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna has been discussing his hopes for the final few days of the January transfer window. (Image: PA)

Kieran McKenna says his gut feeling is that there won’t be any more ins or outs at Ipswich Town before the transfer window shuts at 11pm on Monday.

The Blues have signed defender Ben Godfrey (Atalanta, loan), winger Jaden Philogene (Aston Villa, £20m) and attacker Julio Enciso (Brighton, loan) so far this month.

It’s been reported nationally that the club still wants to add a midfielder, winger and striker in the coming days, but McKenna poured cold water on those claims at this afternoon’s press conference.

“If you ask what my gut feeling is, it’s that the squad is there or thereabouts of what it’s going to be,” said the Blues boss, speaking ahead of tomorrow’s crunch clash with Southampton at Portman Road.

“That doesn’t mean the club isn’t working very, very hard on different situations to see if there’s an area we can improve.

“But, yeah, at the moment my feeling and my focus is that the players we have here are going to be what we go through to the end of the season with and compete with.”0:00

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>On whether he’ll sign a replacement for winger Wes Burns, who has been ruled out for the season with an ACL knee injury, the Blues boss said: “Wes and Chieo Ogbene are pretty unique profiles for us, their qualities are so important to our system, and we’ve lost both of them for the season. So it’s a blow.

“But we have good depth in the squad and other players who can fill the role in other ways with different qualities.

“We’re not going to make any panicked decisions in the transfer market. If there are players that can really help us and improve us then we’ll look to do it, but we’re not going to add numbers just for the sake of cover.”

On reports suggesting there’s interest in Luke Woolfenden (Sheffield United) and Conor Chaplin (Stoke), he said: “Has there? I’ve not seen that. Where’s Chappers going? News to me.

“I wouldn’t expect there to be any more outgoings, to be honest. In football you can never say never, but I wouldn’t expect there to be any more.”

Asked if he felt the club had done enough in this transfer window to be fully prepared for the Premier League relegation fight ahead, McKenna replied: “I don’t think you’ll ever feel like you’ve done enough, as such.

“Look, we’ve tried to improve our squad. The three players we’ve brought in we feel certainly improve the squad.

“Jaden (Philogene) is someone we will can have a long-term impact at the club. Julio (Enciso) and Ben (Godfrey) are two players, even though Julio is young, who have more Premier League experience and who can help the squad for now.

“We’re in a better position than we were at the first of January.

“Of course we want the squad to be a strong as possible. In an ideal world there could have been one or two more pieces of movement.

“But it’s a really difficult window, especially as a club in our position that’s had the climb we’ve had.

“We’ve added three. If that’s the end of it then we’ll crack on with what we’ve got and fight until the end of the season. If we can make any additions that bring us to another level then we’ll try and do so.”