Town boss Roy Keane says he will have an idea about where the club is heading in the next few days after holding talks with owner Marcus Evans and chief executive Simon Clegg. The Blues manager says he has identified his January targets but has dampened down expectations of imminent signings.
Keane says the recent injuries to Brian Murphy and Shane O’Connor plus Gianni Zuiverloon’s return to West Brom have caused him to have a rethink regarding January: "The plan was maybe for one or two players, we’re now probably after three or four players that we might to look to get into the club. Some of those would have to be permanent deals, whether we can do that - whether we get the money - we’ll know in the next few days.
"We’ll find out a lot about the club in the next few days — where we’re heading, whether we’re going to invest in these players or keep looking to duck and dive and getting loan players in which short-term can help you out, but we can’t be dependent on players who aren’t contracted to Ipswich. It catches up with you and I think it’s caught up with us now and will over the next few weeks."
The Town manager is due to continue discussions with the men in charge of the Portman Road purse strings in the next few days: "There are talks going on and telephone calls are due to take place with the owner and the chief executive, so we’ll have an idea.
"They’ll obviously digest things and we’re due more conversations today [Thursday]. The Gianni situation maybe changes the dynamics of the numbers of players we’re after, but we’re not talking about six or seven players.
"It might be loan deals and that might involve one or two of our lads going out on loan to release funds. Let’s see, without getting into the nitty-gritty of it, we’ll see over the next few weeks.”
Keane feels that his own contract situation - his two-year deal is up in the summer - may have some bearing on what cash is made available: "Will the club invest in players when the manager’s contract expires in about four or five months’ time? Who knows? There are lots of question marks that we need to look at over the next few days.”
As things stand, Keane doesn’t want fans to get too carried away with thoughts of immediate signings: "Only time will tell, it’s not good getting my hopes up, it’s up to the club to go and get these players. We tried that in the summer and it didn’t quite happen.
"Talk is cheap, you need to be judged by your actions, whether as a player, as a manager or as a chief executive — you’ve got to go out and do the business.
"I’m not here to give the supporters too much expectation, if anything I’m trying to dampen down their hopes so they don’t believe what they hear and read and think there’s X-amount to be spent or two or three players on the way in. There’s certainly not, there are no players due to drive in through that gate in the next few days.
"If anything I suppose I’m coming across as a bit of a Scrooge, but that’s the way things are looking over the next few weeks.”
But the former Ireland skipper believes his targets shouldn’t be beyond the club and says he will push to get the funds he feels he needs: "Basically you all want the same thing and that’s success for the club. We’ve got realistic targets, we’ve not got a list of Rooneys or Ronaldos or even Bellamys. We appreciate where we’re at.
"I’ve got to fight my corner because ultimately if things don’t go right the manager pays the price and people stay in their offices.”
Keane believes that if he gets the players he wants Town will be in a better position to push up the table: "We’re not far away from being a decent team, I’d say we are three or four players away but that’s nearly half a team. So, we’ll keep battling away and we’ll see where that takes us.”