Nigel Pearson has reiterated his desire to sign a 'maverick' player this month on a permanent deal while also exploring the possibility of bringing loan additions to the club.
The Bristol City manager is eager to get business completed early but recognises the obstacles in doing that with the club's financial situation. Incomings are more likely to happen if the club can push through any outgoings first.
Following the Sheffield United defeat earlier in the season, Pearson claimed the dressing room could do with a maverick and potential matchwinner. He missed out on a summer loan deal for forward Reda Khadra who opted to temporarily join Sheffield United from Brighton.
"Yeah, if it's the right one," he said after the draw with Coventry. "They have to be able to play though, I don't want a lunatic around the place. I'd rather get a permanent one in.
"That's not on the shopping list 'maverick'. It's an area of the team that we need to strengthen and then we look at the pros and cons of each potential option. What we won't do is we won't take somebody in who is a loose cannon, there's a big difference."
Pearson says the club's recruitment team is working behind the scenes to explore deals and he is keeping in constant contact with Technical Director Brian Tinnion and departing CEO Richard Gould over the progress.
"We would like to but it's not been possible so far, but I've not spoken to Brian today (Sunday)," Pearson added.
"I've briefly spoken with Richard but there's nothing at the moment and you know the scenario at the minute it's more likely for us to do business if there are outgoings but we want to keep our best players. It's not my area to chase, that's the recruitment department and Brian.
"He's taken that role on and we speak every day about it. I won't be chasing him, that's not how we are set up at our club. We're exploring loan possibilities to just try and strengthen us so watch this space so to speak."
Khadra's current situation at the Blades could be an intriguing development to the City's January transfer plans. He has been left out of the squad for the last two Championship matches with manager Paul Heckingbottom not ruling out cutting short his loan spell, according to The Star.
At the beginning of November, Pearson said: "I like him (Khadra) as a player. He's a matchwinner. He's probably high maintenance but that's where I think our dressing room could deal with someone like that, but in the past, they couldn't.
"I don't know exactly what happened but you ask me about loan players and I've been asked about loan players on many occasions and he was a player that we were very keen to take."
Pearson would also like to add at least one central defender to the side to bolster competition and numbers at the back. In order to raise funds, the club have told three players whose contracts expire at the end of the season that they won't be offered new deals.
The manager hopes that telling them early will generate interest this month in the hope that they can be used as makeweights to raise funds in the window. Speaking before Christmas he said: "Three players have been told that they won’t be getting contracts next year.
"We’ve decided to do it early so that people can try and find alternative solutions. If we can do stuff in January, we’ll need to generate the opportunity to do it, whether that’s players going out which frees up a bit (of money), or whether we can do something outside of that, I still can’t give you the definitive answer to that."
There is also the possibility that City could lose star assets Alex Scott and Antoine Semenyo during this window. Following yesterday's reports in Team Talk, Bristol Live understand that the Premier League club retain interest but no offers have been forthcoming.
The Cherries have identified Scott as a main target as they look to bolster their Premier League survival hopes and while Semenyo also is of interest, they have other strikers on their list.
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