Kieran McKenna drops Ipswich Town transfer claim after Birmingham City draw - squad "needs to be stronger" | OneFootball

Ipswich Town drew 1-1 away to Birmingham City on Friday night

Kieran McKenna has made it clear that Ipswich Town’s transfer business is not finished yet after the team’s 1-1 draw with Birmingham City.

The Tractor Boys struggled away at St. Andrew’s in the opening fixture of the new season, with the team needing a 95th minute penalty to salvage a result from the game.

The Suffolk outfit fell behind early in the second half after Jay Stansfield scored for the hosts in the 55th minute.

But George Hirst put away a controversial stoppage-time penalty to give the team their first point of the new campaign away to a potential promotion rival this term in Birmingham.

Kieran McKenna claims Ipswich Town still have work to do after Birmingham City draw

McKenna has claimed further transfer business needs to be concluded this month in order for Ipswich to be considered a promotion contender.

He also suggested more time is needed for new players to integrate into the squad, warning his players there is a lot more work ahead of them after their draw with Birmingham.

“We’ve got work to do with the group on the training pitch,” said McKenna, via Sky Sports Football on X.

“It’s a short turnaround between Premier League and the Championship, it’s still been a short pre-season, so we’ve got work to do on the training ground.

“We’ve got new players to integrate, and to still get up to full speed.

“We know we’ve got some incomings and outgoings that we need to resolve.

“Our squad needs to be stronger if we want to consider ourselves one of the top teams in the division.

“We know we’re a long way off where we could be this season, we know we have a lot of work to do.”

Next up for Ipswich is an EFL Cup first round clash away to Bromley on Tuesday in an 8pm kick-off before a home clash against Southampton in the league on 17 August.

Ipswich Town need to improve to contend for automatic promotion

Ipswich were slow out the gates with this performance against Birmingham, and McKenna will be demanding better from the team going forward.

It was a debut for Azor Matusiwa and Ashley Young, with the former starting and the latter coming off the bench, but other new signings Jens Cajuste and Cedric Kipre didn’t feature.

Other deals are likely to be concluded before the end of the month that could also prove quite important for the shape of the squad for the year ahead.

Ipswich, of course, are set to sign former Middlesbrough star Chuba Akpom from Ajax after beating Birmingham to his services and further incomings will be anticipated ahead of a busy end to the summer transfer window at Portman Road, especially if Leif Davis and Omari Hutchinson both move on amid Nottingham Forest's reported interest.

No one is winning the league with the first game of the season, and a draw may look a good result by May, but McKenna’s comments make it clear that he will be demanding more from the players in the weeks and months to come.