New signings Giles Coke and Larsen Toure are two more players that Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy will be able to “hang my hat on” this season.
The duo played cameo roles in Saturday’s 1-1 home draw with Utrecht at Portman Road, but have done enough during trial spells to warrant permanent contracts in Suffolk, ahead of Saturday’s Championship opener at Brentford.
Midfielder Coke, 29, scored seven goals in 101 appearances for Sheffield Wednesday before being released this summer, while Guinea international Toure, 31, who can operate on the right flank or in attack, scored four goals in 19 appearances for Bulgarian side Levski Sofia, during the 2013-14 campaign.
The length of their deals have yet to be revealed and while Coke’s signing was not entirely unexpected, the capture of Toure may have raised a few eyebrows, the French-born winger lasting just 30 minutes of last Tuesday’s friendly defeat at Colchester before succumbing to a lack of fitness.
However, McCarthy said: “I knew Cokey already and he has fitted in well. He is another good person, a good bloke and the lads really like him.
“I am not worried about Larsen’s fitness. We can get him fit, but at 31-32, you can’t turn someone into a good player.
“Larsen is one of my players, he works hard, has real ability and has fitted in really well. I probably have a 19-man squad now, including my two goalkeepers, and I can hang my hat on every one of them, they are all proper Championship players.”
Meanwhile, McCarthy, who confirmed that young defender Matthew Clarke was poised to join League Two Portsmouth on-loan, said he was satisfied with Saturday’s draw.
“I thought it was a really good game, a good competitive game against a very technically gifted, good side, who were keeping the ball well,” he said.
“We made a great start then conceded a pretty poor goal.
“It was a ball into the box that we should have defended better, but we shouldn’t have allowed it to be crossed in the first place.
“Then they were playing 3-5-2 and we were trying to press them but they were keeping the ball.
“I changed it to 4-3-3 and we got to grips with them and sorted it out much better in the second half.”
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