COLIN Todd has targeted the players he believes can get Wanderers back on the straight and narrow path to promotion.
Now he plans summit talks with chairman Gordon Hargreaves to see what funds are available from the Nathan Blake sale before he presses ahead with his spending plans.
Supporters fear that, with the club having a cashflow problem, he will only get a portion of the £4.25 million collected from the sale of Blake to Blackburn. But the Wanderers boss appeared to have no clue as to the size of that slice when he said: "That's something I've got to discuss with the chairman to see what's available."
Nevertheless, Todd has revealed his desire to enter the transfer market again as part of the remedy for the problems that have seen Wanderers slide to mid-table with a miserly return of just two points from five games, culminating in a 3-0 home defeat by Sunderland yesterday - a third loss in a row and a result that took Peter Reid's team back to the top of the table.
"Everybody's aware I've been looking to add to the squad," the manager said today. "There are areas I need to strengthen and let's hope that I can do that."
Todd had previously identified the midfield area and right-back as the positions he was looking to reinforce and problems in recent defeats have, indeed, centred around the defensive area of the team. But, in Blake's absence yesterday, the Wanderers attack failed to score for the first time this season and lacked a menacing force.
However, the manager believes he still has a talented squad at his disposal and regardless of changes in personnel, he feels an improvement in attitude is called for as Wanderers look to stop the rot.
"There are good players in this football club but at the moment - and it happens in football - things are just not going for them," he said.
"Character has been mentioned in the dressing room. It's always mentioned when you lose a game. I'm looking for a bit of character, personality, inner strength."
The qualities you need when the chips are down and the chips are down at this moment.
"I remember people talking about a 'crisis' last time we were in the Nationwide League. There wasn't a crisis then and there isn't a crisis here now. But I've got to look at players' characters at times like these.
"We've got a chance to bounce back against Port Vale here on Wednesday and that's what we'll be aiming to do."
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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