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LEEDS UNITED: McAllister eyes new recruits
Gary McAllister has confirmed that he will look to improve his large Leeds United squad in the January transfer window following a failed bid to land a centre-back on loan this week.
Leeds made an unsuccessful, last-ditch attempt to capture Hull City's Wayne Brown on a temporary deal before Thursday's emergency loan deadline, leaving the club to work with their out-of-form defence until January, but McAllister admitted the need to strengthen his options when the winter window opens.
Leeds announced profits of 4.5m for the 14 months leading up to July 2008 on Wednesday, and their healthy financial position may assist McAllister's attempts to recruit new players, but United's boss repeated his previous insistence that he will not waste money by making unnecessary signings.
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"I feel I've got the right nucleus here already but we need to strengthen and that will by done," he said.
"The loan deadline has passed and the transfer window doesn't open until January but, as I've said before, we're continually looking.
"The thing is, I don't want to be bringing people in for the sake of it. The ones I bring in have to make a big impact. There's a different criteria for people coming here as well because we're in the third division so the expectation levels are high.
"We've got crowds that are different to other crowds in our division so players have got to be able to deal with that as well. They need the right temperament and there's a certain way you have to be mentally."
United moved for Hull defender Brown on Thursday after fragile defending resulted in a 2-1 defeat at Northampton Town two days earlier, but they were unable to secure the 31-year-old's transfer before a 5pm deadline.
Brown has had limited involvement in Hull's Premier League campaign and has spent most of the past month on loan at Preston North End, but the centre-back was only willing to consider a temporary switch to Elland Road if Leeds agreed to take him on a permanent basis in January.
United did not sign a single player on loan during the Football League's emergency window – the club recruited Malcolm Christie on non-contract terms but the striker was unattached and free to join Leeds regardless of transfer windows – and McAllister admitted the search for loan players was often more difficult than it appeared.
The Leeds boss said: "Teams aren't going to let their good players go. That's a fact. You're then in a market where the guys available aren't in clubs' 18 or 19-man squads.
"They probably haven't played a lot of football or trained with the first team. It's a difficult market."
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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