McKenna on Delap, Luongo and summer plans
- Published
Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna has been speaking to the media before Sunday's Premier League game against West Ham (kick-off 16:00 GMT).
Here are the key lines from his news conference:
On Liam Delap's future, McKenna said: "Liam is looking at his options for next year which he's entitled to do and we support him with that. We've given him permission to do that this week, it is a very important decision for his future. There's a lot of interest and rightly so. Part of his week has been having some of those conversations and it looks more likely than not that he'll move on this summer and he has interest from pretty much every club in the league."
Adding more on the striker, McKenna said: "In terms of attributes I think he's as good as what there is out there anywhere in the world and he has honed and developed them well this year and we hope he continues to do so."
McKenna also confirmed midfielder Massimo Luongo will leave the club at the end of his contract this summer.
On team news, McKenna said: "Kalvin Phillips is seeing a specialist for his Achilles issue to hopefully get that sorted in the off-season. Sammie Szmodics is back training with the group but we have to decide on availability. The long-termers are still out and there's a little bit of sickness in the camp so we've had a few off and struggling with that."
McKenna praised Dara O'Shea, who was named the club's Player of the Year. He said his performances have been good and his character has been outstanding, adding: "We're glad to have him here going forward and he's the type of personality, person and player you want to build the next few years around."
On retaining the core of his squad: "Some element of change and turnover is healthy but we know we have some really good players on long term contracts who are much better for the experience that they have been through. Looking at the squad coming back for pre-season there's good numbers, good qualities there and of course situations can change a little bit over the summer but I think we're going to be in a really strong position from that point of view."
McKenna stressed the importance of finishing the season with a good result: "To me it genuinely feels like there's lots to play for in the last game in many different aspects. We can't guarantee the result in any level of football, certainly not the Premier League, but we need to guarantee the commitment we give to the performance and do everything to reward the supporters with a good day, so that's what we are going to try to do."
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