Boss Roy Keane says he expects the transfer window to remain quiet until the final days of the month. The Town manager refused to be drawn on either confirming or denying most of the names linked with the Blues in recent days but dismissed claims that West Ham midfielder Kieron Dyer is on his way back to Portman Road.
Keane says he has made enquiries regarding possible targets and is now waiting for them to respond: "I think clubs and players are keeping their options open even to the last few days of the transfer window. Maybe towards the end of the month I’d expect it to get busier. We’re waiting on feedback from certain clubs and managers and we’ll sit tight until then.
"My mindset at the moment is that we probably won’t be getting anybody in, so if we do manage to get the deals done it’s a bonus. I’m not getting my hopes up too much in terms of bringing in one or two players to the club, as much as I’d love to.
"We’ve made a few calls and a few enquiries and we’ll wait for the feedback from the managers and the clubs. There’s not much more we can do about that.
"Having said that, I’ve got a decent squad anyway. I wouldn’t be too upset if nothing was to happen, but we’ll wait and see.”
Keane confirmed that he has spoken to Derby boss Nigel Clough with his former Nottingham Forest team-mate having revealed discussions which involved left-back Jay McEveley last week.
The Blues boss wouldn’t be drawn on discussing McEveley specifically or any other players with Rams’ striker Rob Hulse also linked with the Blues: "I spoke to Nigel two or three weeks ago about one or two things. I’m not going to discuss players who are under contract at other clubs.
"I’ve spoken to different managers over the last few days. Sometimes about players, sometimes just a casual chat, wishing a manager who has just got a job well. There are a number of reasons.”
Keane, however, did dismiss claims that Kieron Dyer was on his way back to Town as nonsense: "Utter rubbish.”
Dyer is in any case understood to be close to announcing his retirement due to the injury problems which have blighted his career.
The Town manager says he is still trying to find a strike pairing that works with the suspended Jon Stead the only frontman to find his form so far this season. Keane admits that adding to his striking ranks is in his thoughts: "We’ll continue to try different players and, as I’ve said over the last few months, if it doesn’t improve then we’ll have to look at bringing in another striker. The players are aware of that.”
The Blues are still working on completing the signing of American winger Devann Yao, who won himself a deal after a successful trial. The 19-year-old, who is back after spending Christmas in the US, is still injured, having picked up a bad cut in the reserves friendly against Luton last month.
Keane says that the club are still working through the red tape relating to the clubs Yao was with as a youngster — Metz, Livorno, Pisa and St Mirren — but anticipates the deal finally being resolved sooner rather than later: "Hopefully it will be sorted out this week, but you’d be amazed out the amount of paperwork involved because he’s been at a couple of previous clubs and there’s concerns about compensation whether we need to get permission from different people, so I really expect to be done this week.”
The Town manager confirmed that Trinidadian international striker or winger Kerry Baptiste would be spending time on trial in February, his planned spell this week having been scuppered by the snow: "I think he was due over next week but obviously with the weather we put a hold on that. I’m very open-minded, we get players in and have a look at them.”
Despite the injury to Brian Murphy, Keane says he is not looking at bringing in Austrian keeper Michael Langer, who recently spent time on trial at Playford Road: "We won’t be doing anything with that at the moment.”
Keane admitted that striker Tamás Priskin could be allowed to go out on loan, although he says the Hungarian, who is interesting Charlton, is still very much in his plans for a role against Coventry: "Tamás has trained really well this week, he’s got a chance of being involved tomorrow.
"If someone picks up the phone next week, not just about Tamás but about any of the players, we’ll have a look at it, just as we did last week about Colin Healy. We look at situations and ultimately it comes down the player.”
"He gets opportunities every day in training to impress me. He’ll get another opportunity today, it’s always a new day.”