Blues boss Paul Lambert says “things are ongoing” as he looks to add to his squad during the January transfer window having met with club owner Marcus Evans at Playford Road earlier in the week.
Lambert recently handed Evans a list of transfer window targets and, asked whether there has been any progress on any of the players he wants to bring in, said the two held discussions earlier in the week.
"I know what’s going on, I spoke to Marcus the other day, he was in here the other day,” the Blues boss said.
"We know exactly where we’re going, what we’re trying to do, which is great. Things are ongoing.”
Regarding the budget at his disposal, he added: "I doesn’t matter about money, money doesn’t always guarantee success or anything like.
"Get the right people into this club. As I said before, right or wrong, I’ll do what’s right for this club. I’ll not put the club in a position where we spend a helluva lot of money and we don’t make inroads on anything. I’ve got to look after it and that’s what I’ll do.”
Experienced Championship players are top of Lambert’s list and he knows that targets of that profile are likely to be on big wages.
"They are but that’s why you need the hungry ones,” he added. "You can’t get in a negotiation with clubs, all I can do is try and sell the club to the individual. The other side of that will need to come from the people above me.”
He reiterated that loan additions are more likely than permanent signings given Town’s situation.
"Probably but I had loans before and, touch wood, I’ve not had too many bad ones,” he said. "We’ll try and get the right ones in.”
Lambert laughed off rumours that Peter Crouch and Charlie Adam from his former club Stoke are on his list.
"They’re two good guys, I’ve no problem there but it’s not one… because I’m an ex-Stoke manager it’s unfair to speak about the guys,” he said.
"There are ones that we have identified to try and get in and we’ll try and we’ll try and get lads in.”
Reflecting further on the type of player he’s after, he continued: "Ideally you want ones that know this league and that’s what I’m looking at, that are a wee bit more experienced than what we’ve got. We need a little bit of help in a number of areas.
"I don’t mind one young one coming in at certain times but predominantly we need lads that know the league.”
He says he’s not ruling out additions from overseas if he feels players are good enough but that’s not primarily where he’s looking at present.
"It all depends, I won’t turn away from anything,” he admitted. "If I think one’s good enough to come in if I take him, I’ll look at it.
"It doesn’t matter if they’re young, if there’s a hunger there to do it and they want to come, then great.
"But predominantly at this moment we need lads that maybe know the league and higher, I think that’s what we have to look at.”
He says he’s not a fan of the winter window: "I think the January window is a nonsense. What I won’t do is bring in people that I think will just make up the numbers because there’s too many players and you panic in the euphoria of this one getting linked with you, that one’s getting linked with you, and you think there’s absolutely no way they’re going to come here or there’s a chance that he’s going to come.
"So I don’t really get caught up in the euphoria of it because I think it’s a nonsense the January window.”
Even so, he says he keeps his phone close to him: "I do, but that’s why I think it’s a nonsense, that the managers have to be put under that stress to try and get people in every time, it’s not an easy window. But we’ve identified ones well before now and we will try and get them in.”
In terms of exits, Lambert says he’ll not consider any departures until he has brought players in.
"Nobody will leave until I think we can get people in,” he insisted. "Nobody, I’ll never sanction anybody to leave until I think we can get people in that I think can help us, then I might look at it and say, ‘OK, maybe one or two’, but I’ll never release anybody until I think people are coming in.
"We need everybody here, I know lads are in the last year of their contract, you can’t stop that but that’s from before my time, the lads that are coming out of contract, I can’t stop that.
"I need to look after the club’s interest as well and I won’t put any player before the club. The club’s always got to come first, that’s important.”
He says it’s not the case that players will have to move on to fund his additions: "Not really but if we bring people in you know that we’ll have to look at lads maybe going out on loan, but until somebody comes in this door, nobody will leave.
"There are also one or two lads out of contract come the summer and we have to look at that.”
The Blues boss says he’s yet to make a decision on recalling the Town players currently out on loan or sending loanees at Portman Road back to their parent clubs.
"No, I’ve not looked that far,” he said. "I know what's happening with it but I've not looked that far away into the ins and outs of it.”