McKenna: Luongo's Bringing a Lot to Us Thursday, 9th Mar 2023 15:59 Boss Kieran McKenna says January short-term signing Massimo Luongo is enjoying playing for the Blues and the rest of the team is enjoying playing alongside him, but with the Australian international's long-term future something which won’t be addressed until the summer. Luongo, who spent the first half of the season out in the cold at Middlesbrough without playing a single minute of senior football, joined Town in January following a trial and has made a big impression in the centre of midfield over the last four games, the first two as a sub and then as a starter in the last two. The Sydney-born schemer is in his second spell with the Blues having been on loan in the early stages of the 2012/13 campaign from Tottenham where McKenna was an academy coach. “I knew Massimo first time round here and he was a very good footballer then,” the Blues manager recalled. “He spoke about it himself earlier this week and you can see the experience that he’s gathered throughout his career and the know-how that he now has on how to be effective alongside the fact that he’s always been a technically very good player. “So he’s bringing a lot to us and we’re really happy to have him here. It’s not easy when you bring in players in January who haven’t played very much and he made his first starts this week since last May we have to remember. “But he’s been training really well, we’ve built him up well and he’s committed really well to the training, and it’s great to see him out there on the pitch. You can see how much he’s enjoying it and how much the other players are enjoying playing with him.” Luongo spoke to the local media ahead of the Accrington match and gave the impression he’d like to stay on beyond his current contract, which runs to the summer, while it’s likely other clubs will be monitoring the 30-year-old’s progress. However, McKenna says there are no thoughts in that direction at present with Town minds focused only on the next match. “I think he’s a very good player and he’s fit and playing well for us at the moment,” the Northern Irishman said. “There will always be interest in a player of Massimo’s calibre but, as he said himself, now is the time for thinking about the next game, focusing on the next performance and things to come in the summer are to be dealt with down the line. For now, everyone in the squad is focusing on Bolton on Saturday.” McKenna is pleased with how all his January signings are settling in with all four - Harry Clarke, Nathan Broadhead and George Hirst in addition to Luongo - having made an impression in recent games. “As I’ve said, it’s not easy to bring players in in January and we had a lot of debate over how many we would want to bring in because the squad was functioning in a good way,” he said. “But we had injuries in the first half of the season and it’s always been our plan to improve the squad in each transfer window in the short term and the long term, and we feel that we managed to do that in the last window. “During January, it was always going to be a bit of a bedding-in period and there were things that we were having to work through as a team because if you put three, or even four at times, new starters in a team, it’s a fairly different make-up of a team and that team takes a little bit of time to gain the understanding of how we play. “But we’re getting there. We’re still not there yet, to be honest, in my opinion. We’re still redeveloping again as a team and going over some old concepts for the players that have been here all along but not so old for the new players. “And also finding new ways to attack and defend with the strengths of the players that we’ve added. So, I think we’re still improving as a team, and I think there is a lot of scope for us to improve again.” Asked whether he’s ever seen the best of his side this season, McKenna reflected: “No, I don’t think I have. To be honest, I think if I ever thought I’d seen the best of us, it would be time to pack my coat. “For me, it‘s always about trying to develop and improve the team and improve players. I hope there will never be a performance where I’m 100 per cent satisfied because I don’t know what I’d come into work for the next day. “There are always things to improve and there are certainly things for us to improve. We’re certainly not getting carried away with a few good results. I think we’ve got a lot still to do. “On top of that, I still think we’re integrating new players and helping them understand us and us understanding them and how we can be fully effective. “Even in the next 11 games I think there is still a lot of room for growth and development in the team.”
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