Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy is unsure whether the club will be able to hang onto any of their loan players for next season, but believes new transfer rules may help Championship clubs attract Premier League youngsters.
The Blues currently have four players on loan – Bersant Celina, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Dominic Iorfa and Callum Connolly – all of whom have become important members of McCarthy’s first team this season.
Despite McCarthy’s Portman Road future being uncertain, as he enters the final months of his contract, the Blues boss has stated he is already planning for the new campaign, but is unsure whether or not he will be able to hold onto any of the quartet.
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The 72 EFL clubs voted to align themselves with the Premier League last week, meaning the permanent transfer window will close on August 9, with loan deals allowed until the end of August, and McCarthy believes the new rules may ultimately help the club secure players on temporary deals.
“I don’t know, because there will be interest in Bersant, of course there will be,” McCarthy said.
“Cameron Carter-Vickers, I don’t know there, and I think everyone will take them all on pre-season.
“The stock answer is, ‘we’ll take them on pre-season and we have until August 9 and then we’ll let you know’. At least then everyone will have three weeks.
“We can start that planning because, if we can keep them, at least we’ll know after August 9.
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“I went to a meeting of the league managers, just a small meeting to discuss that subject and I went thinking ‘oh, no, we should leave it to the end of August’.
“But as we discussed it I though ‘well, no, the Premier League deals are done and we get loan players from the Premier League and all their business is finished on the ninth.
“They can get all their business out the way then decide ‘well we can loan these players out’.
“They have three weeks to know which players they can loan out because all their business will be done.”
Also voted in were new rules to help ensure full strength teams were played during the final weeks of the season.
For any league match played on or after the fourth Thursday in March, starting this season, clubs must include at least 10 outfield players who featured on the team sheet for the league match before.
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