IPSWICH Town manager Mick McCarthy says he is not preparing to sign a whole host of Wolves players if his former club drop into League One tomorrow.

While the Blues are assured of Championship safety heading into their curtain-closer at Burnley, his previous employers are on the verge of successive relegations – they need to win at Brighton and hope that both Barnsley (at Huddersfield) and Peterborough (at Crystal Palace) both lose.

McCarthy was a popular figure in the Molineux dressing room during his six years at the club and has already been reunited with Richard Stearman and Frank Nouble at Portman Road.

Speculation that he may try and prise away the likes of Kevin Doyle, Karl Henry, Stephen Hunt, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Stephen Ward has inevitably arisen, but the Blues boss has played down such talk.

“People talk about the quality in their squad, but they’re getting relegated by the looks of things,” said the Yorkshireman. “Yes, they’ve got good players, but that doesn’t mean I’ll go tripping back there to sign them.

“Who’s to know what they are going to cost and what wages they are on anyway? I’m not thinking that’s my fishing ground at all. Not at all.”

Asked if he expects his transfer budget to be ‘sensible’ this summer in light of academy upgrades and new Financial Fair Play rules, he said: “I think that’s probably a good description. There’s no point asking Marcus (Evans) for things completely outside the budget and asking for things that are not possible. I might be a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them.

“I’m cool with it. I’m pragmatic. Whatever I get I always spend in the best possible way. That will be no different this summer.

“There is certainly more of a sense of achievement when you do it on a reasonable budget I think. I guess that’s what we’ll have to do.

“We’ve got a good nucleus to the side and we’ll look to add to it. Recruitment, as ever, will be vital.

“There will be a lot of Bosmans around and hopefully we can pick up some good ones. I think there will be plenty who will want to here come though because if you ask any of the ones here now they’ll all say they are loving it.”

He added: “It would be good to get our business done ASAP, but if you sign people too soon you end up having to pay them through the summer. I can assure you nobody wants to do that. And yet the players who are coming out of contract want to get sorted as quickly as possible.

“We’ll certainly be looking to have our business done by pre-season so we can take them away with us.”