Rotherham United boss Paul Warne took time out his busy transfer Deadline Day scheduled to speak to members of the local press ahead of the rearranged hosting of Derby County at AESSEAL New York Stadium.
Warne addressed the topic of the transfer window and the possibility of any late incomings, whilst also discussing team news and the challenge of taking on the Rams on Tuesday night.
Warne on his hunt for a midfielder ahead of the transfer window deadline…
“I’ve had the same one on the forefront of my mind for a while now, I’m ever confident of getting him over the line, whether I can or not is another thing. Everything is virtually agreed so I’d like to think I’m there or there abouts.
“I’ve done all I can, the player wants to come, the agents wants him to come here and the other manager wants him to come here.
"There’s only so many video calls and jokes a player wants to listen to! Hopefully he’ll be in the building before the deadline, but there are no guarantees in life.”
Warne on the prospect of a second addition ahead of the deadline…
“I think that is unlikely, I don’t see that happening at all.
"I think if I get my one it hasn’t been a bad window for us. I think one looks realistic but two looks pure Disney at the moment.”
Warne on his reflections of the January transfer window…
“I’ve let a few go and got one in so far, so you can see how difficult it is.
"I don’t particularly like letting players go, but we had to look at strengthening and I think Ryan [Giles] has come in and definitely added something to us.
“If we do get this other player in we are up to our five loans, so I think we’d be struggling after that anyway.
"It may be a case of getting a free agent after that, I don’t know. The players we have give us everything they’ve got, so I didn’t want to just sign players that were not going to come in and improve us or not play.”
Warne on speculation linking Freddie Ladapo with a move away…
“I’ve spoke to my Head of Recruitment and my Chief Executive six times today, I know his agent really well and I’ve been with Freddie today, so I don’t think there’s any truth in it at all.
“I could have egg on my face, but at this moment in time I don’t think there is any validity to that story at all.”
Warne on team news…
“I’ve only got one problem, one of my big hitters so to speak, apart from that everyone else is raring to go.
"We can’t have Flo [Jozefzoon] in the squad either, but it will be nice to welcome Dan [Barlaser] back, that is for sure.”
Warne on Chieo Ogbene’s injury setback…
“The surgeon went back into his knee on Friday, he didn’t have any structural damage which was pleasing, however, they think he may have an infection.
"Chieo had gone from training with the squad to being back under the knife within three days.
“At the moment he’s still in a bit of pain from Friday, so I won’t know anything more for another 10 days.”
Warne on Swansea…
“Every goal is avoidable, there are always three mistakes which lead to a goal, we could pick holes in all of their goals but a game of football would never happen if these mistakes were not made.
"We gave a great account of ourselves and I think we just got done by three amazing finishes.
“I can’t recall my goalkeeper having to make a save, so I think we did well against a very good team, I’ve watched the game back and that opinion hasn’t changed. Obviously I’d have liked to have come away with something, but it wasn’t to be.”
Warne on Derby…
“I said at the time that everyone was building it us as a big six-pointer, we won it and since then they’ve gone on to win every game since. Of course we’d like to win, but if we don’t win, we need to win the next one and that’s how it is.
“Derby have improved since the last time we played them and I expect them to have strengthened as well.
“It gave the lads a boost to beat them because it showed them we can compete against a good side, but we have the belief we can compete with anyone.
“No one has ever said they don’t think Derby don’t have a good set of players, the position they are in now, you’d still probably expect them to finish higher than that.”