Town boss Roy Keane has confirmed that Tottenham midfielder Jake Livermore is joining the Blues on loan, as predicted on last night’s The Naked Football Show. The 20-year-old will provide competition for the likes of Luke Hyam, Grant Leadbitter, David Norris and Colin Healy.
Keane says Livermore, who is expected to be at Portman Road until January having initially signed until November 13th, is someone he’s been targeting for several weeks: "He’s a player I’ve been interested in for a while and with Tottenham getting knocked out of the Carling Cup Harry’s given us permission to speak to the boy.
"He’s a very good player, he has massive potential like Andros and he’ll hopefully come in do well for us. I think we’re short in that area of the club in terms of competition and we’ve got a lot of games coming up. We’re looking forward to working with him."
Livermore, 5ft 11in tall, spent time on loan in the Championship with Derby and Peterborough last season, having previously been on a temporary spell at the MK Dons. The midfielder has made one start, Tuesday’s Carling Cup defeat to Arsenal, and one sub appearance for his parent club. He also played the first 74 minutes of the friendly at Portman Road in August.
Keane says he is continuing to look for further additions: "I’m still after two more players, there are two positions we still need cover but having said that the way the players are performing at the moment they are making it hard in terms of getting players who are better than we’ve already got.
"We’re nowhere near [making further signings]. I’ve had brief conversations with one or two other managers and it’s a case of wait and see.
"There are some good options out there, a lot will have been dictated by the results in the Carling Cup and we’ll see how that pans out over the next few days. I think Jake will be the only player signing today.”
Keane says there were no new injuries suffered during Tuesday’s Carling Cup win at Millwall with Shane O’Connor (hamstring) and Alan Quinn (groin) the only players currently sidelined.
Meanwhile, Town have been linked with Swansea striker Craig Beattie. The 26-year-old Scotland international, who was at Celtic at the same time as Keane, is currently out injured having picked up a thigh problem in training soon after recovering from a calf injury.
Beattie, 26, joined the Swans from West Brom in 2007 and has previously had loan spells with Preston, Crystal Palace and Sheffield United. The Glasgow-born frontman is yet to appear for Swansea this season.