|
" Plenty of enquiries have been going on and the phone is busy in and out. It is a quietish period with people, players away and managers away and obviously the season not in full swing yet. So there is movement but it is movement where I would think that there are loads and loads of enquiries at the moment. Once a big one goes then generally things trigger off from behind that, so there is a lot of movement going on but as yet there is nothing concrete to tell anybody.
" A centre-forward is a priority, as is maybe a left-sided player. There have enquiries been made for a replacement striker from the time we found out, well we were making them anyway before Danny Graham's decision, because just incase that situation happened. We were ready for it and I will speak with John Nixon and Steve Pattison later on and we will discuss that list and see where it takes us and see what we can do with it.
" There is nothing imminent, it doesn't happen at the moment. It is the big boys that have got to do their stuff first and then the Championship do their stuff and then we start moving behind that. If there was anything there in the pipeline though then I would let you all know because I am as excited as everybody else about getting somebody that is going to score us 20-odd goals next season.
" So at the minute it is enquiries and keeping players warm and getting us five or six targets, and trying to decide and trying to persuade player and club to release that player. Obviously they are a commodity aren't they are centre-forwards that can score goals, they are not easy to find and we want to make sure that we get the right one. "
" I have spoken to Danny Graham and had a good conversation with him. He has made his decision and I respect that and I wish him well in his quest for a new club and a new challenge. I am meeting David (Raven) this afternoon at 2pm so David is going to come and see me and we will have a good chat and I would think that at the end of that conversation there will be a decision. So that one probably is imminent.
" Tony Kane has a verbal agreement to sign. His contract doesn't finish at Blackburn until June 30th so he can't sign but he has agreed to sign. So that is something that I can speak with the people here and everybody knows that that is out now. That is something that happened late on yesterday evening when he rang me from Ireland to say that he can't wait to come over and join in and force his way into the first team.
" There have been a couple of tentative enquiries about one or two of our players, players that I don't want to release and hopefully won't have to release. At the minute though they were enquiries and that it is all that they are at the moment, I would imagine that there will be more of that goes on as and when.
" At the moment we have done our retained and released list and the players that I have got at the moment I have absolutely no problem with. They are going to form the bulk of our squad and we are looking to add to it at the minute rather than see it dwindle any further.
" There is money going to change hands for Danny Graham one way or the other. The ideal scenario is for us to agree a fee with a club and both clubs avoid going to a tribunal, because it can go for and against both clubs. So that situation will be whoever comes in for him and takes him will either agree a fee, which would be the best case scenario, or it goes to a tribunal and they will set a fee. "
" It is frustrating for you waiting for me to get things done, it is not frustrating for me because I am not going to rush into anything. I have got to get the right player in, the centre-forward is an important one as is a left-sided player. We don't have to rush into things though, there are not many people rushing into things if you notice at a lot of other clubs. There is nobody doing any business at the moment so what we don't want to do is go in now and miss out on something that might be around later on.
" You have got to pick the right time to go in and buy, you have to do all this work because nothing just happens on a Thursday. You don't go out and find someone on a Thursday and then sign them on a Friday, it just doesn't work like that. I have got to come up with enough information on a player that I want to buy or sign and give that to the board and hopefully they agree with that situation.
" So it just doesn't happen where on a Monday we lose Danny Graham and on a Tuesday we replace him. Because players aren't as freely available as that and certainly goalscorers aren't. Work has to go on long before that situation ever arises, which has done and now we have got a list of names that we have got to try to find the right time to persuade the clubs to part with these players.
" This season, I was just talking to one or two people on the way up in the car this morning, the league is going to be unbelievably strong. There are some massive fixtures to look forward to and come the fixture list coming out then we can start having a look at what type of start we have got and where we are over Christmas and the big games. We can then look forward with some excitement of the big games that are no doubt going to come our way next year. "