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Keane Looking for Four New Signings Saturday, 21st Aug 2010 10:05
Town manager Roy Keane says he’s looking at adding four players to the squad. The Blues boss, who is frustrated at the lack of new additions, says the Blues need to strengthen in order to take the pressure of the younger players.
Keane says he firstly needs to bring in frontmen: “We need some more goals in our team, in terms of attacking positions. Pablo has gone, Jon Walters has gone, there’s talk of Steady maybe going next week and Connor’s injured, so you’re talking about three or four strikers out of the squad already.
“We need one or two players there, probably somebody to cover in midfield and maybe another defender. People are talking about getting one player in, we need about four, and even then I probably wouldn’t be too happy, but four would probably steady the ship for us.”
The Town boss says the depth of his already injury-hit squad will be tested even more in the weeks to come: “We’ve got some big games coming up and in a couple of weeks a few lads are away at international matches and they don’t always come back fit.
“We’ve got a lot of young players and I don’t want to be putting pressure on the likes of Luke Hyam to be playing every week because, as I said over the weekend, they mightn’t pay for it this season but they will when they’re 24 or 25.”
Keane says that it is full-time signings he’d prefer to make rather than loans, but admitted that he is in the dark regarding how the final days of the transfer window will progress: “God knows where we’d be if it wasn’t for the loan players last season, but we can’t do that every season. We need the nucleus of our own players and that’s why the players I’ve targeted will be permanent deals.
“But sometimes these deals don’t happen, sometimes you wait until the end and they end up being loan deals. For me to try and predict what’s going to happen in the next few days is ridiculous.”
The Blues boss’s number one target through the summer is understood to have been Cardiff frontman Michael Chopra, but that at present the club are unwilling to pay the fee asked by the Bluebirds: “If someone gives them their valuation, then Chopra might go, but Ipswich wouldn’t meet that valuation at the moment.”
Meanwhile Keane has confirmed that striker Jon Stead has continued to speak with various clubs: “I think there have been more talks with Steady this week. But at the moment Steady’s involved with us at Palace because we need him.”
Bristol City are believed to have renewed their interest in the former England U21 international after earlier talks broke down, while Stead has also held dialogue with Blackpool and Cardiff City.
Keane says he has had loan enquiries regarding his younger players but until reinforcements are added to the squad none of them will be allowed to move on.
Photo: Action Images
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What is the real problem here? Is it a board that doesn't want to splash the cash or players that don't want to play for a manager that will drop them from the side if they show a bit of passion and inadvertently speak out of turn during a moment of emotional pride. How many times have we heard "he will never play for this club again as long as I am manager", during the past 6 months? Rod for your own back springs to mind......
He does keep throwing the blame at ME and Clegg. But if the money isn't there, then they shouldn't stick to their guns..The most important thing is securing the future stability of the club.
could be a sneaky tactic by evans/clegg to get keane off the books i assume if he walks early there would be no big payment and we would have ample time to get someone else in.these blokes might not be as silly as some suggested
If I was going to a job where I heard the manager was like Keane, then I'd want a good pay packet and some sort of cash guarantee if there was any possibility of losing my job within 1-2 yrs. I don't think this is helpful coupled with, I believe, ME's desire to constrain costs as it seems to me he wants at least a return of his cash soon. Therefore he needs promotion to release the value and try and find another buyer after a yr or so in the Premiership. So I imagine the contracts would be structured with pay rises contingent on promotion with possibly less up front. If a player is dropping from the premiership (or even from a well paid job elsewhere) then I imagine the pay could be a big disincentive unless they feel they've been frozen out at their club with little chance of playing. Trouble is there only seems to be one club where that happens regularly ...
On the other hand, perhaps Keane's just waiting for all those Man City extras who don't make the squad and would therefore love (?!) to come and work for him ...
I suspect Roy is after a right back. We need cover in midfield as sadly Healy isn't very good (can't fault his effort mind). Then up front we need two more players. That said, when Edwards, Wickham, Delaney, Leadbitter, Kennedy and Civelli are also back, we will have a decent squad with a potential 4 new players.
Won't hold my breath, but it seems we've been dragging our heals in the Stead sale so he won't be able to play against us at the weekend perhaps? Rather see him stay, guy has worked harder than most of the rest of the high earners. Can't see other championship clubs paying him the same as we do.
You are all dreaming if you think Chopra will come here especially as Cardiff are now on a roll. Not sure about McCormack either as his temperament is questionable. Scotland and Fryatt will do me please - a right back - yes Finnan would be good but cannot afford his wages and some cover for Leadbitter and Norris as heaven knows what would happen if they get injured.
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