Sydney FC boss Ufuk Talay has ruled out a January move for Nicolas Milanovic as the Johnny Warren medallist looks to reignite his Socceroos career following an ill-fated move to Scottish side Aberdeen.
The A-League Men's transfer window opened with a flurry of activity of Australian internationals returning from Europe in a bid to boost their hopes of a World Cup call-up from Socceroos boss Tony Popovic.
Daniel Arzani and Ryan Teague have both landed at Melbourne City on loan, while Macarthur have snared Mitchell Duke while Brisbane brought in Nick D'Agostino.
Milanovic - a Western Sydney Wanderers youth product - is an obvious contender for a January move after struggling for gametime at Aberdeen.
But Talay said: "We haven't looked at Nicolas Milanovic at all.
"It (our transfer activity) is a work in progress at the moment and we've looked at a few players.
"We are ok (in a budget sense) but it's about finding the right player to bring in.
"We're looking in the front line, we're looking for a No.9 that we want to bring in to play alongside Victor (Campuzano)."
Talay's desire to strengthen is underlined by the fact his bench in last week's loss to Wellington had an average age of 19.
Abel Walatee (groin) and Al Hassan Toure (calf) remain out injured with midfielder Rhys Youlley sidelined for Monday's away trip to face Melbourne Victory with suspension.
Winger Joe Lolley (hamstring) is a chance of returning for next weekend's Sydney derby.
Talay has also had to manage the load of star centre back Marcel Tisserand, who has been restricted to 45-minute cameos as he returns to full fitness.
"We'll push Marcel a little bit more in this game because it's a big game," Talay said.
"We want our experienced players on the park so hopefully we get to halftime and he's feeling good and he can continue on.
"He's doing more work and more load during the week which allows us to try to push him in the game too and then the numbers keep going up."
