Glenn Roeder is looking to do some wheeling and dealing in the near
future as he seeks to strengthen the squad still further.
While many felt that the signing of Tomas Repka would have signalled the end of new faces coming in for the time being, Glenn stresses that he is, in fact, still actively seeking to acquire fresh talent as soon as possible.
He reveals:
"As and when I'd like to be able to go back into the market, and we need up to date dossiers on the players that we have been looking at over the last couple of months.
"It's not a knee jerk reaction from Saturday, though what I will say is you certainly learn more about your players in a defeat than when you don't lose.
"I've known all along that the senior squad isn't strong enough and there are still gaps to be plugged; there are still new players that need to be brought to the club to make sure that we climb up the table.
"£14m has been spent, and we have brought five players in, but somehow I have got to find a way of getting some more players in."
He could not, understandably, set a time scale of when his targets might be achieved, and he explains:
"There is too much work to be done, and players to be assessed that we have been looking at over the past few weeks.
"It will not necessarily happen during this fortnight before we go to Blackburn, and there is some groundwork to be done before we are in a position to be able to bring in a couple of new faces in the next month.
"That is why no one on the staff will be having any days off; we'll all be working as hard as we can to make things happen.
"We have obviously got to look at all ways of achieving what we want, which is a stronger squad.
"If I can I'd like to do it sooner rather than later but as we know from the signings of Tomas Repka, Don Hutchison, and David James it can take longer than you want it to.
"We are working on it now and we are pulling together a hit list."
He is looking to avoid a situation where anyone feels he has a 'guaranteed' place in the team, and adds:
"I do feel that the squad does need some competition; there are one or two places where there is no competition, and that is an unhealthy situation.
"When a player knows if he doesn't do so well one week he's going to start the next just because there's no one to take his place, it is wrong and I need to change that.
"I'm not going to say what areas but there are still some weak parts of the team that need to be strengthened as soon as possible."
And, thinking of the defeat at Everton, he says:
"I can't tell you how disappointed I was on Saturday - it was a case of going through the highs and lows of football in six days.
"We were all elated after the Newcastle performance and we were pretty dejected travelling home from Goodison on Saturday, as I'm sure the fans were.
"We badly let them down."
While many felt that the signing of Tomas Repka would have signalled the end of new faces coming in for the time being, Glenn stresses that he is, in fact, still actively seeking to acquire fresh talent as soon as possible.
He reveals:
"As and when I'd like to be able to go back into the market, and we need up to date dossiers on the players that we have been looking at over the last couple of months.
"It's not a knee jerk reaction from Saturday, though what I will say is you certainly learn more about your players in a defeat than when you don't lose.
"I've known all along that the senior squad isn't strong enough and there are still gaps to be plugged; there are still new players that need to be brought to the club to make sure that we climb up the table.
"£14m has been spent, and we have brought five players in, but somehow I have got to find a way of getting some more players in."
He could not, understandably, set a time scale of when his targets might be achieved, and he explains:
"There is too much work to be done, and players to be assessed that we have been looking at over the past few weeks.
"It will not necessarily happen during this fortnight before we go to Blackburn, and there is some groundwork to be done before we are in a position to be able to bring in a couple of new faces in the next month.
"That is why no one on the staff will be having any days off; we'll all be working as hard as we can to make things happen.
"We have obviously got to look at all ways of achieving what we want, which is a stronger squad.
"If I can I'd like to do it sooner rather than later but as we know from the signings of Tomas Repka, Don Hutchison, and David James it can take longer than you want it to.
"We are working on it now and we are pulling together a hit list."
He is looking to avoid a situation where anyone feels he has a 'guaranteed' place in the team, and adds:
"I do feel that the squad does need some competition; there are one or two places where there is no competition, and that is an unhealthy situation.
"When a player knows if he doesn't do so well one week he's going to start the next just because there's no one to take his place, it is wrong and I need to change that.
"I'm not going to say what areas but there are still some weak parts of the team that need to be strengthened as soon as possible."
And, thinking of the defeat at Everton, he says:
"I can't tell you how disappointed I was on Saturday - it was a case of going through the highs and lows of football in six days.
"We were all elated after the Newcastle performance and we were pretty dejected travelling home from Goodison on Saturday, as I'm sure the fans were.
"We badly let them down."