GARY Rowett hopes Oxford United might be able to add ‘one or two more bodies’ in the January transfer window prior to their weekend clash at home against Blackburn Rovers.
The U’s have signed Netherlands-born forward Ole Romeny from FC Utrecht for what is widely understood to be a club record fee, plus Chelsea midfielder Alex Matos on loan, so far during the window.
United have been linked with a loan switch for Celtic centre half Maik Nawrocki and a permanent move for Millwall striker Tom Bradshaw in recent days, and this newspaper understands that both those areas of the pitch are seen as key to being strengthened by the U’s this month.
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Head coach Rowett said: “I know Ed [Waldron, head of football operations] is spending every waking hour speaking to agents and clubs, trying to sign players. We’re certainly very proactive.
“How close we are, I don’t know. We’d hope to maybe get one or two more bodies in before the weekend. That would be the hope, but you never know.
“I spent all afternoon looking at players in the hotel room. That’s what we want to do, we want to strengthen the group.
“The more times we lose a body, it just furthers that need and that desire to do that. It’s one of those things as a manager, I can sit here and stamp my feet, and say I need six players, but the reality is that it’s not as easy as that.
“We’ve got really good people working at the club, and we’re all trying to strengthen the squad as effectively as we can.”
Rowett also stressed the importance of adding further Sky Bet Championship experience to the United squad.
He said: “We don’t want to go too far away from the club’s model, which is a really good opportunity for young players to come in and develop and improve, and create assets.
“But at the same time, we want to be really competitive in this division, and sometimes to be competitive in this division, you might need to compromise on some of those ideals for players that are Championship ready.
“We haven’t got that many players within the group that have played lots of Championship football. I believe they’re all capable of doing it, which they’ve shown so far with five league games unbeaten, but it’s also nice to add one or two bodies that you know what they can do, and they know the level.”