Bristol Rovers are "down the line" in negotiations with several transfer targets, manager Joey Barton has said.
Barton wants to make widespread additions to his squad by the time the window closes at the end of the month, with the need for signings heightened by his decision to exile Trevor Clarke, Zain Westbrooke and Alex Rodman from his first-team squad this week. The trio have been told they have no future at the Mem and to find new clubs.
The Gas boss has previously indicated he wanted seven additions to his squad by the end of trading on August 31, with needs in most area of the pitch.
Rovers have lost several pieces of their promotion-winning team from last season and to remedy the lack of depth the Gas are pursuing deals for former loanees Luke Thomas and Luke McCormick. Crystal Palace defensive prospect Jake O'Brien is also of interest to the Gas.
Still, it has been a testing period for supporters with John Marquis the most recent signing to be completed more than a month ago. Newly-appointed coach Glenn Whelan has also been registered as an "emergency player".
But Barton continues to hold his nerve in the market, insisting he won't "pad" the squad for the sake of depth. His focus is on quality additions and he insists he feels the financial support of owner Wael Al-Qadi to get deals done.
"We’re not waiting," Barton said. "It’s just where the market is at. If you know anything about the window, there is really good value at the start of it, and there is really good value at the end. In the middle, you just get stuck in auctions.
"Loads of people are still spinning plates and we’re a long way out from the end of the window and it’s tricky to navigate it.
"The money, Wael’s not said no. The owner is ready to go, (CEO) Tom Gorringe is ready to go. There is no financial thing holding it up, it’s just we want to take as much quality as we can.
"You’re waiting on people who are being told by clubs higher up the food chain than us that they might come for them, so they might be waiting for a Championship option. I think usually with those guys, they’ve got four or five options and once they take one then everybody knows they’re not getting it and all of a sudden they say ‘I’m ready to come into League One’.
"That might be 24-48 hours to go in the window and you have to be patient."
Barton is braced for a tricky start to the season after the opening day defeat to Forest Green, with several pieces of his squad yet to be added.
The manager, though, is sure the Gas will be rewarded for their patience.
"I look around lots of other teams and I can take players now, but we’ll get better," he insisted. "We’ve got to improve the group, we can’t just bring players here to pad the squad out.
"It’s not fair on those players and it’s not fair on our players because we worked really hard to get in the division. I promise you we will have more than enough to stay in the division and we’ll have a really good squad.
"How early we get them obviously gets us off to a better start, but if after six or seven games and the window closes, if we’ve got six, seven, eight, nine points on the board, that will be a competent start. If we get more than that, great. If we get less than that, obviously we’re playing a little bit of catch-up."
The seven-strong wishlist has risen to eight, and Barton revealed on Thursday's press conference ahead of the trip to Burton Albion on Saturday that he was taking a close look at a left-back on trial.
The manager is impressed by what he has seen but says there is competition for the player's signature.
He said: "With Trev going now, that will probably make it eight (signings), but we’ve got some quality in the building and I know from last year and from my time coaching, it is just one or two players and before you know it the group looks markedly different.
"We’ve got a good foundation to build off, we just don’t have enough of them at the moment. But luckily, we’ve still got 20-odd days in the market and things are progressing.
"Whether they progress quickly enough to have people in the matchday squad, I’m not sure but were certainly down the line with a couple of players and a couple of loan players.
"We’ve got no recognised left-back, so our left-backs are Harry Anderson and James Gibbons, who’s played there for Port Vale and we’ve had a trialist in today who is a left-back and has done exceptionally well.
"The problem for us is there is a Premier League club in for him as well. I think it is for their under-23s programme, so we can offer first-team football and we’ve just got a few bits to check and obviously speak to agents and agree salaries and stuff, but it looks an improvement on what we had before."
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