Manager Keith Curle confirmed this weekend that work to bring in new faces will continue as the transfer window heads into the final 72 hours – cut off at 11pm at on Wednesday night.
“We’re still in there and wheeling and dealing,” he said. “I’ll be making phone calls and I’ll hopefully be speaking to a representative and a player today [Monday].
“We always have to take on board the cost element. We don’t have bundles of cash and we won’t ever pay over the odds, so if I think a player is out of our league I won’t waste his time or ours.
“There’s always talk about salary cost management and percentages of spending, and things like that, but the one thing we can guarantee is that I will try to spend 100% of the money that’s made available to the football department.”
On how many additions he wants to make, and the qualities he’s looking for, he said: “I want to bring players in who I think will add to the dynamics of the group and who will help us to get the results we need which will maintain our climb up the table.
“That’s my job, and within that the housekeeping part of it is done by Nigel Clibbens and Suzanne Kidd. It’s down to them to pay bills and make money available.
“We’re still at a point where the final calculations from the Sheffield Wednesday game haven’t been submitted yet – each club gets 14 days from their fixture date before they have to lodge final figures, so there’s nothing unusual in that – so that could change things slightly.
“The club is steering money my way and within that I can also be more creative with the group I have to make more money available. We have some players who might see themselves as wanting to go out to get game time, and we will then look at what we can recoup as a contribution to their wage.
“There’s a little bit of leeway, but I’m not going to be creative if it’s going to weaken my options."
With the clock ticking on the last transfer window of the season, he commented: “If I can get the work done quickly then that’s exactly what I’ll do. Having said that, we’ll keep working through until the window closes on Wednesday if needs be.
“If we can get it done on Monday or Tuesday then that will be excellent. I know last season was exciting for everybody because we lost Charlie Wyke very late and we had to go shopping to replace him.
“Hopefully we won’t get any approaches like that and we’re in a position where we don’t have players with that type of trigger in their contract this season. That means if somebody does leave it’ll be because it’s the right thing for all parties.”
So, is he a fan of the added pressure a transfer deadline brings?
“This is a good opportunity for me to apologise to everybody I’ve been short-tempered and annoyed with,” he joked. “I’ve been grumpy and angry, and if anyone feels that they need an apology, here it is.
“I know time is ticking, but we’re still out there and we’re still trying to make things happen. At the moment we’re chasing but we have firepower in the team and we have a strong backbone. We’re comfortable, but we are still trying to add different options to the group.”
Click HERE to watch an interview with Keith Curle on iFollow United now.
