Town boss Paul Jewell has revealed that one of his January targets suffered an injury while playing in his current side’s Boxing Day fixture. Jewell, who says he wants to sign players for the long-term during the transfer window, revealed last week that he had made enquiries regarding two potential additions.
Jewell said: "One got injured in a Boxing Day game. There’s no progress but we’ve made enquiries and that’s as much as I want to say about that.
"There have been no more, just those two enquiries and as I say one of the players got injured on Boxing Day, so you can trawl through the fixtures!”
Jewell wouldn’t be drawn on the identity of the injured man but one possibility is Gillingham winger Chris Whelpdale, watched last month by Blues coach Sean McCarthy, who notably suffered a split scrotum in the Gills’ 2-1 victory over Crawley.
The Town manager says he is looking to strengthen all areas of his squad if the right players in the right price bracket become available: "I think if we can improve a certain position in the team, whatever that position is, we would like to do it, if it’s doable.
"I keep saying that I’d like to bring all the Barcelona team here as I think they would improve us, but there’s no way we’re going to get them. So, we’ve got to try and have realistic target and try and make sure we get our signings - hopefully for the long term - right.”
The Liverpudlian says he’s looking to establish a team over the next few years, citing Saturday’s opponents as an example of the sort of stability he is aiming for: "In an ideal world what I’d like to do is get players in in January that are going to come in and be here for three years. We’ve had lots of loan players and we’ve had lots of short-term deals.
"Look at Reading, they’ve got players who have been there two, three or four years and you see their continuity and that’s what we’re after. But that takes a while.”
In terms of the money available, Jewell says it’s not as simple as having a set figure to work to: "[Wigan chairman] Dave Whelan would never give me a budget because he said that any manager he gave a budget to went right to the budget and then came back and asked for more.
"Everything has to have parameters, though. You can’t spend money you just haven’t got. You have to speculate, there’s no doubt about that, but there’s a different between speculating and being silly about it and we don’t want to be silly. We want to be as ambitious as we possibly can without being stupid.”
He says that’s not to say that the Town owner won’t be providing cash: "I think if you look at things since Marcus Evans came to the club, you wouldn’t say he’s been penny-pinching.
"Money has been spent, I’ve spent some money, so it’s not as if Marcus is saying there’s no money there.
"I was speaking to Nigel Pearson after the game on Monday and he thinks there are at least 16 or 17 teams, if not more, in our league who think they should be in the Premier League.
"Leicester have spent a few quid, West Ham have spent a bit of money, Southampton, again like Reading there’s continuity with them, so we all want to spend money but at the same time I’m aware that the football club and the future of the football club is the most important thing.”
While Jewell has made his two approaches, he has received none regarding his current players so far: "Unfortunately not!” he joked. "We’ve had no enquiries regarding our players and I’m not in a rush, I’m more interested in trying to improve the squad.”