Kieran McKenna believes Ipswich Town can benefit from adding experience to the centre of their defence, as the club closes in on a deal for Richard Keogh.

The 35-year-old was at Portman Road today as the Blues bid to complete the signing one of the most experienced players in the history of the Championship, with his signing from Blackpool likely to be formally announced tomorrow.

While McKenna was not keen to discuss Keogh specifically, the Town boss did reveal they have long identified the middle of defence as an area needing added experience.

“There’s nothing announced so I won’t speak about any individuals until it’s done, but that is a profile of a defender we’ve looked at over the summer to potentially add to our group,” he said, speaking after Town's Carabao Cup loss to Colchester.

East Anglian Daily Times: Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna looks on.Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna looks on. (Image: Steve Waller)

“We feel like we have a really talented centre-half group with some good young defenders, but for that department Cam Burgess is the oldest at 26 going down to Elkan Baggott at 19.

“It’s a young group and we’ve looked at the teams who are successful in our division and they predominantly include an older player in that unit who can help develop the other players and help the team over the course of a season.

“We could also allow some of our other defenders to get games (on loan) and if and when that’s formalised it will be announced by the club.”

With Sone Aluko playing a similar role within Ipswich’s attacking unit and Town’s three frontline central midfielders all brining experience in their own right, McKenna believes every area of the squad can benefit from a veteran presence.

“Sone is a really good role model for our young forward players in terms of how he conducts himself and how he trains,” he said.

“So it’s fair to say he shows the value of that in his area of the pitch. We then have three really experienced midfielders, who are all fantastic characters (Sam Morsy, Dom Ball and Lee Evans) with Samy the oldest at 30 and leads the way.

“But compared to the more successful teams at this level over the course of the last few years, we are very young in the defensive unit. It’s useful at times to have an experienced head around those young players.

“If we have young, talented defenders who aren’t able to get minutes for us, it’s important we enable them to do that elsewhere so they can make the steps necessary to hopefully be first-team players here one day.”

Asked if that meant Corrie Ndaba would likely head out on loan, McKenna said: “That’s something we’ve spoken about between ourselves and Corrie and, if something is announced and in place, we’ll speak about that.

“But that is something we’ve looked at.”