Blues boss Paul Jewell has confirmed that he’ll be in the market for a new goalkeeper when the transfer window opens. Loanee David Stockdale returned to Fulham earlier in the week with the Town manager not expecting his return before the end of January.
Jewell says Stockdale is likely to be required at Fulham until after the window closes when the Blues would only able to re-sign the 26-year-old on a 93-day loan: "It looks like Mark Schwarzer could be out for six weeks, which would take him past the window, so we will be in the market to try and get a goalkeeper if we can.
"We want to get long-term players in all over. Obviously we’ve got quite a few loan players and players on one-year contracts and the ideal would be to get players for the long-term, that is the ultimate plan, and hopefully we can do that in the coming months.”
Currently, Arran Lee-Barrett is the club's only fit senior goalkeeper with Wright out with a strained pec muscle, but probably for only another week. US U20 international Cody Cropper is expected to be out for a few months with the knee problem he suffered in training yesterday, with 17-year-old Irishman Conor O'Donnell drafted into the first team squad as cover over the Christmas period.
The Town boss admits that Stockdale’s exit is not ideal, even if he always felt the 24-hour recall clause included in the loan deal was a risk: "It was always going to be one of those decisions where we were going to be at the mercy of one of the goalies getting injured or losing form at Fulham.
"It is a blow for us, especially after getting a good result at Barnsley. David is a terrific goalkeeper and we’re disappointed to lose him but there’s nothing we can do about and there’s no use crying over spilt milk, it’s done and it’ll give someone else an opportunity.”
Jewell, who revealed he watched a match abroad on Friday evening, says the search for the new keeper is already ongoing: "We are out watching games all over Europe trying to improve our squad for the years to come.”