Boss Roy Keane says he was impressed with Austrian keeper Michael Langer during his trial spell at Town last week. As TWTD revealed on Monday, the SC Freiburg player’s trial was cut short after he was called back to Germany by his club.
Keane says he will consider whether to take Town’s interest in the 24-year-old further: "He did really well when he was in last week. He got called back by his club and we’ll be looking at that over the next few weeks.
"Obviously, Brian Murphy’s available in two weeks and we’ve got Arran, so that will ease the concerns with our goalkeepers.
"The boy did reasonably well in the friendly against Luton. He didn’t let himself down.
"We’ll look at that over the next few weeks. We’ll give the boy Murphy a chance to settle in, see what he’s like. We can also look at other goalkeepers in terms of loans, as we did with Asmir Begovic.”
Keane said that he was not aware that Trinidadian international midfielder or striker Kerry Baptiste is set to join the Blues on trial, as reported in the Caribbean earlier in the week.
The Blues boss says the situation regarding compensation due to some of American youngster Devann Yao’s former clubs — Metz, Livorno, Pisa and St Mirren — is still being worked through:"It’s a bit complicated in terms of the agents and the clubs he’s previously played for. He picked up a bad cut in the reserves game which has probably set him back a couple of weeks.
"The boy has gone home for a week or two but we’re hopeful of doing something. You’ve got to be careful because his previous clubs might stake a claim for compensation, so we’re just trying to get that sorted out. But we’re hopeful it will be sorted.”
One deal which Keane now says is dead is the move for free agent Senegalese left-back Ibrahima Faye: "We’ve moved on from that at the moment. The deal was only to the end of season and time is obviously running out.
"I’m very wary at the moment of what players we bring to the club in the sense that we have a lot of players, as much as I’d like to strengthen one or two areas. If we do add to the squad in January, don’t expect too many.”
The Blues boss, who will have Kevin Lisbie at his disposal in the new year when he returns from his loan at Colchester, says he has made no new progress on any new signings.
Keane says a number of his players would benefit from going out on loan, the likes of Colin Healy and Liam Trotter as well as Tommy Smith, who his manager says needs games ahead of the World Cup with New Zealand.
The Blues boss, who did his pro licence alongside New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert, says Smith could move out on loan in order to help his international prospects: "He needs games. It’s hard to get selected if you’re not playing regularly for your club.
"He could go out on loan in the next few weeks. He’s a good player. It’s only last year he had a bad injury, so he’s playing catch-up a little, but it’s nice that someone to dangle a carrot in front of him in terms of if he can play regular league football there’s no reason he can’t go to the World Cup. Hopefully he can grasp that.”
Smith previously spent time out on loan at Stevenage Borough in the 2007/08 season.