Town boss Roy Keane says the Blues won’t be looking to sell star youngster Connor Wickham to raise funds when the transfer window opens in January. Wickham, who is available for today’s home game against Millwall after recovering from his ankle injury, continues to be watched on a regular basis by the likes of Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United.
despite this, Keane says there is no intention to cash in on the 17-year-old: "We’ve not thought about that. We don’t want to be selling any of our players.
"We didn’t sell Connor in the summer and we want to hang on to our best players. We don’t need to because I think we can add to the squad over the next few weeks if the right striker is available.
"I would expect the finance to be there anyway. With the players we’re interested in we’re not talking about silly loan fees or silly wages. We find that out before we make the initial enquiry.”
The Blues boss reiterated that he feels his squad lacks the strength in depth of the best sides in the division: "We’ve just got to be careful that after Jason and Tamás our next strikers would be Connor and Ronan.
"The injury to Connor brought it home to us that we are short if we got another injury to one of our strikers, particularly if we were going with two up front.
"Compare us to the clubs at the top at the moment. Last Friday, QPR were a goal down with 10 minutes to go, they brought on Rob Hulse, Patrick Agyemang and Tommy Smith and they got a draw.
"Cardiff on Monday night — Bothroyd, Chopra, Burke, Bellamy, Whittingham. Those players will all get double figures this season.
"People have to understand where we're at as a club. We’re putting on 17 and 18-year-olds to try and get us back into games.”
Despite Wickham’s return from injury, Keane says he’s still looking at potential loan targets: "I still think we have to keep an eye out for one or two attacking players if they’re available. We’ve spoken to one or two clubs and talks are ongoing, shall we say.”
"We need our strikers to keep putting the ball in the back of the net so it gives me the situation where I don’t really have to go out looking for players.
"And we’re not really, we’re just making enquiries and being kept up to date with one or two clubs about their attacking players that they might let go.
"And if they do let them go, as I’ve said before, the players we’re interested in, I’m sure they’ll have a few options.”