Izzie Deal Imminent

Glenn Roeder is likely to loan promising young defender Izzie Iriekpen out by the end of next week - and he predicts that preparations for the transfer window opening in January will soon start to increase.

Regarding Izzie, Glenn says: "He is available on loan and there is one club interested already. There could be a couple more by the middle of next week and then it will be up to him to decide who he goes to.

"But I am going to push him out and encourage him to go for his own good to get league experience."

On general activity in the market, he adds: "I think the agents have been away on a long holiday but I am sure in the next couple of weeks the phones will start ringing with the window opening on January 1st.

"And I am sure there will be an acceleration of activity through November and December; from talking to people I am certain there is going to be a lot of activity in that window.

"It won't necessarily be large transfers but I think there will be a lot of loans until the end of the season and players being allowed to leave their contracts on frees and being re-signed somewhere else.

"Clubs will be looking to strengthen for the second half of the season."

Glenn is happy to use the loan system now it has been clarified, when it was initially thought that such moves could not be made when the window was closed.

"Overall, the rules and regulations of the transfer window, as far as I can see, are not black and white," he says.

As for the weekend action, he adds: "It is the second longest trip of the season and it has been a long wait for a game. It would have been a lot easier to handle the two week break had we got the result that we wanted last time.

"Then we have lost players to international duty so we have not seen vital members of the team for 10 or 12 days, but everyone reported back on Thursday and we trained in the afternoon before adding the finishing touches to our preparations on Friday.

"Judging by the way the lads have trained they are determined to put on the sort of performance they did against Chelsea and hopefully we will get a similar result - we certainly need to.

"What has frustrated us and made us look angry as a group of people is that whereas last year we were very consistent at home with 12 victories so far this season that has been shot to pieces and we have lost three times already which makes awful reading.

"It makes it all the more important in the next few weeks that we pick up points on our travels.

"Apart from the last half hour at Newcastle I can draw some encouragement from our performances away from home. We certainly performed well enough to pick up points at White Hart Lane, which we didn't because of a late goal.

"But where we are in the table, not only the performance must come but the result as well, and hopefully that will happen.

"With Howard Wilkinson in charge for the first time I am sure there will be an even more white hot atmosphere at the Stadium of Light, which is a magnificent arena.

"We did well up there last season only to lose to a late Kevin Phillips goal, and we should have had the game wrapped up by then.

"If the game pans out the same way I just hope we take our chances this time."