IPSWICH Town manager Roy Keane has indentified three players that he would like to bring to Portman Road during the January transfer window.

But he says that no arrival is imminent and that he is still awaiting the wherewithal to complete the deals that he hopes will be permanent.

“I made a lot of noise in the summer and then failed to come up with the goods,” said Keane, whose side play Coventry at the Ricoh Arena tomorrow (kick-off 3pm).

“I was very optimistic then and if anything I want to be more of a Scrooge figure this time and dampen down the hopes of our fans.

“I am looking at three positions in the team and I have indentified the players that I want, and I don’t want to stray from people who will give us extra quality.

“They are all realistic targets and are not Wayne Rooney’s and we’re not talking millions of pounds. Two in particular would give us a good boost.

“I’ll be fighting my corner as I know what happens to managers who do not get results.

“We need reinforcements, and although it will not be easy in January I’d like to bring in experience in at least one or two of the positions that we need strengthening.

“But there will be nobody coming through the gates in the next day or so.”

And Keane wants to increase his ratio of permanent players to those he has on loan.

“We’ve been ducking and diving in the loan market and particularly last season our loanees have been invaluable to us.

“But you can’t depend on players who are not contracted and it has caught up with us now with the lost of two over the last fortnight in Andros Townsend and Gianni Zuiverloon.

“We have played 30 players this season and that’s crazy. It’s far too many, and last season we used 36.

“I know where we are at now and where want to be, and we’re still a million miles away from the leading teams in the Championship.”

Keane confirmed that he has had one request to take an experienced player on loan and he admitted that he may have to let players gp to bring some more in.

“But I don’t expect Connor Wickham to go next month,” Keane said. “But then I expected to have Gianni Zuiverloon playing for me at Coventry tomorrow.

“But with budget wage levels to consider we might see one or two leave – we’ll know where we stand on that more in a few days time.”