Blues boss Paul Lambert says he believes QPR’s interest in Alan Judge has now been put to bed and that the loan move for Millwall striker Tom Elliott is now “not going to happen”, while he confirmed that former Lincoln City defender James Wilson is close to agreeing a short-term deal.
QPR had a number of offers for Judge rebuffed by the Blues before turning their attentions to former AFC Bournemouth man Marc Pugh, who West Londoners’ boss Mark Warburton admitted last week was "probably” signed as he had given up on Judge.
Lambert similarly believes the Championship side have ended their hunt for the Republic of Ireland international, who previously played for Warburton at Brentford: "I think it's put to bed.”
He admitted that it was in the back of his mind that he might lose one of his key players just prior to the start of the season.
"Yeah, but that's not my concern though, my concern is the lack of players coming in, that's my concern,” he insisted.
Lions striker Elliott was at Town for a medical on Monday but with his hamstring injury not recovered enough for the Blues to go through with the loan move.
"It's not going to happen,” Lambert added. "Things like that fall through, that's football and I don't mind all that sort of stuff.”
Might he have to go down the route of more loans having said he’d prefer to make permanent signings? "I don't know. Honestly, that's me being totally honest. All I'm interested in is the game tomorrow, everything else after that will happen.”
One signing the Blues have made this week was the addition of keeper Will Norris, who has joined for the season on loan from Wolves after Bartosz Bialkowski’s departure for Millwall, also a season-long loan.
"I saw Will playing a couple of times, and he's a really, really good goalkeeper,” he said. "[Tomas] Holy’s been performing well and Will Norris the times I saw him was excellent, so two really good goalkeepers.
"Bart had to go because he needed a change for himself, and I think a change for him will be really good."
He says Wilson will come in as experienced cover at the heart of the defence, we understand signing a deal until January.
"We have to because we're very short,” Lambert continued. "Luke [Chambers] is out [suspended], Toto [Nsiala] is out [injured], and we’ve only got two kids [Luke Woolfenden and Corrie Ndaba] so we need something, we need to try and do something, so we’ll see how things go, but it’ll be sort-term that one.
"He's just done really well, James. I think he’s a really good footballer, he’s not frightened to go in where it hurts, he's got experience as well in that area. To go with two really young ones would be a big, big ask.”
Asked if Wilson is set to make his debut on Saturday as seems all but certain, Lambert wouldn't give anything away: "I don't know, we'll see what happens.”