Ipswich Town have transfer 'irons in the fire' ahead of Sunderland clash in Championship

Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKeanna and CEO Mark Ashton have delivered interesting transfer verdicts ahead of Sunday's Championship opener against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Sunday.

The Blues have been busy in the window so far, adding George Hirst from Leicester City for £1.5m, attacker Omari Hutchinson from Chelsea on a season-long loan, midfielder Jack Taylor from Peterborough United for £1.5m and keeper Cirean Slicker from Manchester City for an undisclosed fee.

McKenna explained: "I think we pinpointed that (adding 2-3 more players) quite a while ago, but that ends the fixture part of pre-season, so it’s probably a good time to sit down and have a look.

"I’ll get updated on where we’re at. We’ve said all along that we want to keep improving the squad, but we’ve also said that we have a good group of players here with chemistry and an understanding who are read to try and compete next season.

"It’s about bringing in the right players that we want to add to the group. We need to be patient with that, we need to work hard and we need to continue to try and work in that logical way."

Speaking to TownTV on Friday, Ipswich CEO Mark Ashton revealed: "There’s still a month left of the window. I actually don’t think the transfer windows really come alight in the EFL as of yet.

"I think people are still waiting to see what some of the relegated and parachute clubs do but for us, we’re just getting on with our business.

“I think there’ll be two or three more at least coming in, but they have to be the right ones. Kieran (McKenna) won’t just take anyone, we’re very selective.

"You’ve seen us spend a little bit of time getting George Hirst done, that was a challenging deal to get done, as we expected it to be.

"But you’ve seen George score here again today, I think he adds quality to the team. And what we’ve got to do is, whilst we add quality to the squad, we’ve got to really add quality now to the starting XI.

"More competition for places can only be a good thing, but there are irons in fires and I’m sure there will be more players coming in."