The Gaffer looks ahead to a busy January Transfer Window
The January Transfer Window is now less than two weeks away and Town boss Paul Hurst has been readying himself for a busy New Year.Hurst made it clear when he joined the club that he would like to make changes to his squad and with the likes of Andy Mangan, Antoni Sarcevic and Moha Choulay already leaving the club over the last couple of months, January looks as if it will be a busy one.
Paul doesn’t hide the fact that he is looking forward to bringing his own players in, but acknowledges that they won’t all come at once.
“We are looking forward to it opening,” the former Grimsby boss admitted.
“It will certainly be busy and how quickly we can get things done will remain to be seen. Ideally, it would be fantastic if on New Year’s Day we can roll out all the new signings, but realistically we know that that won’t happen.
“Some we will have to be patient on and wait, but we have got to bring players in to help the current group and put us in the best shape possible for the remainder of the season. I’ve made my thoughts clear from a relatively early point that I want to bring players in to strengthen the squad.
“Whether they all end up being in the team, whether they are part of making up the bench, whether bringing new players in gets more out of the players that are here, who knows, but that’s what it’s all about.”
Paul is looking to strengthen in a number of areas and has been creating a list of targets over the last few weeks, but he admits that many variables come into it.
“The targets are concrete in my head, but some of those will change,” Hurst said.
“One of those changed this week because a player got injured that I was very interested in and will be out for most of the season, if not the remainder of the season.
“You have to have more than one target and we are working hard behind the scenes to have a list of targets and see where we can get to.
“But, there’s still a couple of weeks where an injury could happen or an injury could happen at another club meaning that other players are no longer available for loan.
“There’s lots of variables that are unfortunately out of our control so we have to keep ringing round, have our finger on the pulse so to speak and fingers crossed we can get some deals done.”
Despite Town’s recent upturn in form, they still remain in the relegation zone and Hurst knows it will take a certain type of character to deal with a relegation battle.
“There’s lots of areas that we are looking to improve,” said Paul.
“I think an athleticism and injecting some pace into us would be good, if we can. If you were playing Football Manager you could make it happen quite easily, but this is the real world and people’s situations change.
“The other thing is that we are near the bottom of the league as it stands and come January we are in a relegation fight. Some players will be put off by that. Some clubs may also be put off by that and not want certain players to be exposed to that environment.
“The positive side to that for me is that I don’t want those players anyway because we need people that want to come here and fight and have a go. I want us to go into January all guns blazing, ready to take on every challenge in front of us.”