Brabin: Striker search continues

HATTER boss Gary Brabin’s exhaustive hunt for a striker will continue into next week, writes Mike Simmonds.

The manager has been searching round the clock for the proven goalscorer to complete his squad, but has so far been met with a number of dead ends.

Speaking to the press this afternoon, he said: “Hopefully we’re getting nearer, it’s a 24/7 thing at the moment. There’s no secret that I want a striker, we’re hoping to get one in sooner rather than later, but I can’t be any clearer on that.

“It’s not that I’m holding back, I’m telling you as much as I can and there’s one or two things we’ve got our finger on the pulse on.

“I’ve done my homework on a lot of players and there’s a lot of rumours coming out about players I haven’t even spoken about.

“We have got some good forwards at the club, some good attacking players. I just want to bring someone in to complement that as I don’t think we’ve got the type I’m looking for.

“I don’t think we’ve got anyone who wants to get in and around the six yard box and wants to put his head on things and score goals.”

Oxford’s James Constable, Forest Green Rovers’ Reece Styche and now Gateshead forward Jon Shaw have all seen their clubs reject bids from the Hatters this week.

Brabin confirmed the trio had all been on his wish list, but also admitted he still had other targets he was looking at.

The boss said: “They’re the three that have been named from their clubs, not from us, so we can admit to showing more than a bit of interest in the players.

“Two of them have been completely squashed by their club and they don’t want to talk about them and I have to respect that view.

“There are other players on the list who are exciting and I feel could bring something to the side.

“We haven’t got all our eggs in one basket. There’s other players, some players who have been mentioned, others that have been mentioned there’s no truth in as well.

“There’s a lot of rumours and we are working on it and hopefully something will happen in the next few days.”

Some supporters have voiced their disappointment that the club had not solved the striker problem before the campaign began, but Brabin confessed it hadn’t been for the want of trying.

He said: “I would have hoped to have done it before the start of the season, improved the squad and improved the team.

“It’s needed for the season to start for managers to start changing opinions on people and needing to get people out.

“I think once the season started, things start to move a lot quicker. It’s been really quiet summer right from the top to right down at the bottom.”

Constable has also been attracting interest from Swindon Town, whose manager Paolo Di Canio said: “Unfortunately he is contracted until 2014, but I know everything about him and also some other players.

“He is an important player for them (Oxford) obviously. In the last few years he has scored 17, 18, 19 goals and he is one that can score goals.

“It would be good to bring him here but I don’t think Oxford would let him go, especially because we are such big rivals.

“He has pace, he is tall and is two footed. He can’t come [at the moment] although it would be good and we never know.”

Brabin conceded that it didn’t look like the the U’s would get their man go, but even if they did, he didn’t think it would be to arch rivals Swindon.

The manager said: “I don’t think Oxford would sell one of their main strikers to Swindon.

“I might be wrong but it’s like us selling someone to Watford. I don’t think it would go down too well.”

Although Brabin is desperate for a striker, he hasn’t ruled out strengthening other positions in the squad, should the right player become available.

He added: “If that bit of quality does become available in other areas, I don’t want to just fill the squad full of players and then a window of opportunity comes for a player who could really improve our side find we’re overloaded with bodies.”

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