Town boss Paul Jewell says the Blues will definitely be in the fight to sign loan pair Danny Collins and Keith Andrews in the January transfer window despite reported interest from Premier League sides. Collins’s 93-day spell is up after Saturday’s home game with Derby, while Andrews is due to return to Blackburn Rovers on January 7th.
Jewell says he has told Collins that he would like him to come back, the centre-half having impressed since joining from Stoke in September: "I spoke to Danny on Monday, obviously it’s his last game on Saturday and we’d like to keep him.
"He’s done really well because his wife has given birth while he has been here and he’s been up and down the motorway, which isn’t always easy.
"He’s been terrific for us. We’d like to make that long-term, as we’d like to with Keith Andrews. But I’ve said before, we’d like to sign Messi and there’s no chance of that. But we want to keep those players, definitely.”
He admits he is likely to face rivalry from Premier League clubs with Wolves linked with Collins and Swansea and Wigan said to be eyeing Andrews: "You’re always going to be at the peril of that, and we understand that. Both players enjoy it here but I’m a big boy, I understand that there is interest from other clubs, and that’s always going to be the case, but we want to be in there fighting trying to sign them as well.”
Jewell says he’s yet to make contact with Andrews’s club, but talks regularly with Stoke: "If you can get hold of Blackburn, you’re doing well.
"I speak to Tony Pulis quite regularly. We’re trying to speak to the players’ agents to see if we can do something but there are a lot of hurdles to get over before we can sign the two of them. But we’d love to sign the two of them."
The Town boss would prefer to do permanent deals but concedes that loans may easier deals to do given their situations with their parent clubs: "If it was possible we’d like to sign them permanently but they’ve both got a year left on contracts at Premier League clubs [after this season].
"I think at the end of the day we will make our best offer and try and make it as attractive as we possibly can, working within financial parameters like everyone else. But if there’s Premier League interest in the two players, it makes it doubly difficult.”