Oxford United manager Karl Robinson has confirmed he wants to sign Blues loanee Jordan Graham on loan from Wolves as soon as the transfer window opens.
Graham remains on a season-long loan with Town despite not having been at the club for more than a month, manager Paul Lambert wanting the spell to be cut short in January with the 23-year-old, with whom he enjoyed a not always harmonious relationship at Aston Villa and Wolves, not in his Portman Road plans.
"I can only come in see with my own eyes what I think is right and what I think is wrong and I think we’ve a squad where there’s a lot of players, young ones as well, who I think are going to make an impact sooner rather than later,” Lambert said when asked about Graham's situation three weeks ago.
"I just go with my own eye. No ill feeling towards anybody, I’ll pick what I think is right and I’ll always do that.”
The former England U17 international has been on trial with the League One U’s, where he was previously on loan in 2015, for the last month and has done enough to convince Robinson to want to add him to his squad, although that may require a current Oxford loanee returning to their parent club.
"We’d like him to be here by January 1st — that’s always been our objective,” Robinson told the Oxford Mail.
"I know he wants to be here. He played in a behind closed doors game the other day and said something to me which really made me smile — let’s just say he enjoyed putting yellow on again.
"It reminded him of the beginning of something which could have been very special.
"Due to an injury and other things, it fell away. He almost feels like it’s the beginning of that again, but with more experience.
"He’s a diamond of a human being as well, I’ve been very impressed with him as a person and that’s something which means a lot to me. He’s a pleasure to be around.”
Graham, who previously had a short stint with Town in 2013/14, rejoined the club on loan from Wolves in August and made three starts and one sub appearance without scoring under Paul Hurst but did not feature under Lambert.
With the winger's loan now virtually certain to end at the start of the month and with injured ex-skipper Jon Walters's half-season spell up, the Blues will have four players on loan - Trevoh Chalobah, Tayo Edun, Matthew Pennington and until confirmation of his permanent leave to remain arrives Janoi Donacien - with five permitted in a matchday squad.
Lambert has confirmed his January additions are most likely to be loans and that current loanees could depart. Fulham man Edun would appear to be a leading candidate having not featured since the change of manager.