Town manager Roy Keane says he hopes to be given the cash from the sale of Jon Walters to strengthen his squad. The Blues sold the 26-year-old to Stoke City for a fee of £2.75 million rising to £3.25 million on appearances on Wednesday.
Keane says he expects to be given the cash for more signings, although he has had no confirmation from chief executive Simon Clegg or owner Marcus Evans: "You’d hope so, yes.”
Keane says he has players in mind to come in and is frustrated that some deals where fees have been set, so far haven’t been completed: "I’ve got them lined up. We’ve had deals agreed for one or two weeks. The fee for Jason Scotland was agreed a couple of weeks ago in terms of the clubs, it’s about getting deals done [with players].
"It’s not my job, it’s not in my contract. I’ll give you a copy of my contract. It’s not in my contract to do contracts with agents and players. It’s a manager’s job to identify players and try and bring them to your club, but I hopefully never be sitting down with an agent and a player discussing terms. That’s up to the chief executive. We’ve got targets and we’re in talks with these clubs and these players. Bloody talks!”
The Town manager says there were deals earlier in the summer which also fell through: "Ten weeks ago, I had a player in my office who would have signed that afternoon, but we couldn’t do a deal for him. He’s now playing for a good team and doing well.
"It’s not been over the last few weeks,” Keane said. "I’m talking about over the whole summer. We’ve had players who wanted to come to the football club and we’ve not done the deals. We’ll see what pans out over the next week, but I’m sure I said the same last week.”
Keane says that despite the frustrations there is as yet no problem between him and chief executive Simon Clegg: "Not at the moment, but ask me next weekend at the end of the transfer window!
"I can [understand where they are coming from], just as I hope they can understand where I’m coming from — we need players. We went to Exeter last week and we didn’t have enough players to sit on the bench, three days into the season.
"We’ve been talking all summer, I spoke to the owner the other night, he’s well aware of [where the squad needs strengthening] but it’s about trying to get the right deals. I think there will be news next week, it’s not all doom and gloom. I’m quietly confident.”
Photo: James Ager