 Tuesday, 24th Nov 2009 22:46 Town boss Roy Keane is chasing two players before the emergency loan deadline on Thursday. Keane was speaking at this evening’s PLC AGM held in the Sir Bobby Robson Suite in the South Stand. Keane revealed that he is targeting a striker from a club outside the Premier League and another player during the question and answer session after short speeches from PLC chairman David Sheepshanks and club chief executive Simon Clegg, who has joined the PLC board. The Blues boss said he had been in talks with several managers for a number of days, but admitted that finding a striker was proving difficult with clubs keen to hold on to their players. However, he said he was hopeful of signing a player from a club outside the Premier League by Thursday, as well as making another addition to his squad. Speaking to TWTD after the meeting, chief executive Simon Clegg would add little to Keane’s comments: “We’re speaking to a lot of people and we’ll see if anything comes to fruition. I don’t want to fuel any speculation at this moment in time. “Roy has identified a couple of people, whether they will convert from aspirational targets into loan signings I really can’t tell you. “There’s a lot at play here, not least what the player does or doesn’t want to do, whether the club that owns the player is willing to let him out on loan and at what price. There’s a lot that comes into it.” Clegg says he has also had clubs asking about current members of the squad: “We’ve had a bit of interest. There’s an element of chicken and egg in terms of what comes first. We continue to speak to people and people continue to speak to us.” Keane also revealed that he had been at the Southend-MK Dons game last Friday when Shrimpers striker Lee Barnard was clearly the subject of his interest, although he wasn’t mentioned by name. The Blues boss, who was answering a question about Jordan Rhodes’s summer sale, said that the “top scorer in League One” was available for £250,000 but felt he already had better players at his disposal in his squad. Keane admitted that he had lost a lot of sleep before deciding to take Huddersfield’s offer for Rhodes. The Town manager said he took the advice of his coaching staff before making his decision and isn’t surprised that Rhodes is scoring in League One, but questioned whether scoring at that level —as Barnard and Rhodes are doing — means that a player is capable of doing so at a higher level. He dismissed the claims of Town receiving a low fee for Rhodes and said the Blues are “well covered” financially should the 19-year-old make a big money move in the future. The problem of loaning players from the Premier League was illustrated by Keane recalling an approach he made to a club a few weeks ago when he discovered his target — who we suspect was Hull City’s George Boateng - was on £35,000-a-week, well beyond anything Town are willing to pay any player at the present time. Earlier, one of the 150 or so shareholders in attendance asked Keane about the future of Connor Wickham and said he had held meetings with the striker’s father regarding the 16-year-old signing a professional deal when he is 17 in March. The Town manager said he had got the impression from his father that Wickham is happy at the club, however he admitted that big clubs are always going to be interested in talented youngsters. Keane was also asked about Owen Garvan, who he didn’t consider a young member of his squad, and admitted that as with any other player on the staff an offer would be considered if it came in, although he said he was well aware that the Irish U21 skipper is a popular player with fans. The Blues boss said he believes his players are good enough and should be higher up the table. Stressing that he didn’t want to make excuses for the current lowly position, he pointed out that a lot of players had come to the club over the summer and inevitably will take time to settle into the area as well as the club. Simon Clegg was asked about away ticket prices which the questioner said were the highest in the country. Clegg said that a lot of time and effort went into setting prices and that average attendances were up by 250 this season so far to 21,037, while season ticket sales were 904 higher. He said that the club had to be run on a sound financial footing and that it was a balancing act, but he conceded that some people had been priced out of attending. The same shareholder then berated Roy Keane for his recent comments regarding Ireland’s exit from the World Cup and called on him to resign. His outburst, somewhat out of character for a Town AGM, which have always been polite and civil affairs even during the club’s financial crisis, was shouted down by many of those in attendance and received a rebuke from David Sheepshanks for being unmannerly. Sheepshanks, chairing his 15th Town AGM, had earlier revealed that the £1.1 million Bank of Scotland debt - used to pay for the land on which the training ground was built - which was inherited by the PLC when the takeover took place had been paid off in its entirety. Another shareholder accused the club of losing its heart since David Sheepshanks stepped down as chairman and said that there was no one for fans to talk to these days. After the meeting Simon Clegg told TWTD that he had spoken to him: “I’ve gone and seen the gentleman who said I wasn’t accessible and I asked if he’d attended any of the meetings that I’ve been at where I’ve opened myself up to questions and he said no. I asked if he’d written to me and he said yes. I asked if I relied and he said yes, so what more could I do?” Someone else asked whether Marcus Evans had got Roy Keane into the club purely to raise the profile of his brand, a comment which Keane later referenced, suggesting that he may well have been given the job as manager of Sunderland for the publicity that he would provide and boost he gave season ticket sales, although dismissing the suggestion that the same was true at Town. The Blues boss was asked about the lack of a quality reserves league and admitted it was a problem. He said the club play a lot of training games which to some extent help make up for the lack of a decent standard second string competition. Keane also said that the club try and organise friendlies with other clubs, citing the recent game at Chelsea and a behind-closed-doors game at Portman Road tomorrow against Celtic which he had arranged with his former team-mate Neil Lennon. Asked why fans aren’t allowed along to the game, Simon Clegg said that that was the arrangement and that in future the club will try to make similar matches open to the public. David Sheepshanks added that he had tried to make moves to improve the reserves league in the past, but that clubs in the Midlands are generally happy to play one another in friendlies and so organising a ‘Championship reserve league’ had proved impossible. Keane was asked whether 18-man matchday squads made bringing in loan players harder and explained that loan deals in any case are often complicated with, for example, loaning clubs sometimes receiving larger sums of cash if their players don’t play. He added that not all managers feel loans are a good idea. Some are grateful that their short-term nature allows players whose moves haven’t worked out to leave quickly without a fee having been paid, while other bosses feel loan players can upset the spirit of the camp and that the loanees aren’t always committed to the cause. Keane’s invitation to fans to attend training sessions was referenced, the Blues boss reiterating that supporters are invited to come along, although not on Fridays when they prepare specifically for the next day’s game. The Town manager added that he was unhappy that he had heard that people had attended and posted “lies” on websites regarding what they had seen. A shareholder pointed out that Sir Bobby Robson had established a fixed side and had dealt only sparingly in the transfer market. Keane said that in an ideal world he would like to put out the same side every week. He pointed to injuries — notably David Norris’s early season knee problem - and lack of form which have prevented him from doing so. The Town manager said he had to make changes to the squad over the summer with the Blues nine points off the play-offs last season, even after winning their last three games of the season. He said that with 21 or 22 players in the squad there were players — including Connor Wickham — chomping at the bit and that there is a balance to be found between having a big enough squad but not having seven or either unhappy players. Keane said that despite the current position, the players had been fantastic but admitted he was “embarrassed and hurt” by having won one of 17 league games this season, which he described as “pretty disgraceful”. However, he said he had known difficult spells in his career before when injured, suspended and when he was getting interference from the board when at Sunderland. He added that he was aware that his job was on the line: “I know that if results don’t improve, I’ll lose my job but I’m not fearful.” Keane says he hopes Town will still have a good season as players settle in and he gets to know his staff better. Referrring back to the earlier criticism of his quotes regarding Ireland’s World Cup exit, Keane admitted he may have gone too far: “The comments on Sky were perhaps over the top and I apologise to any supporter I might have offended. I’m 38 years of age, I’m going to make mistakes.” All the resolutions, including the election of Clegg to the PLC board and the re-election of former chairman John Kerr and Martin Pitcher from the Marcus Evans Group - who was unable to attend due to illness - were passed with large majorities. After the meeting Clegg echoed Keane’s words regarding the club’s current position: “We’re all hugely embarrassed in terms of where we’re sitting at the moment, no one more so than Roy. “The position [regarding Keane] remains absolutely unchanged. The manager recognises that the current position is not sustainable indefinitely, but I remain confident that he’s going to turn the draws we’ve had — we’re six games unbeaten now — into wins.”
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