Stoke City are hoping to close in on two more signings at centre half and up front, The Sentinel can reveal.
Stoke’s hierarchy have made contact with two Premier League clubs over centre halves - and with a third top-flight club over a striker.
The news comes after Stoke were linked with a fourth player, Bournemouth’s young central defender Jack Simpson, earlier this week.
And in a separate development, the club is quietly confident that striker Tyrese Campbell will put pen to paper on a new contract to stave off an approach from Glasgow Rangers.
But the news is less optimistic on the injury front as the 20 year-old striker is threatened with a lengthy lay off after suffering a hamstring injury at West Bromwich Albion on Monday evening.
Manager Michael O’Neill remains determined to add a couple of loan signings to last week’s permanent acquistion of Blackpool midfielder Jordan Thompson and has until the January 31 deadline to pull them off.
The two centre halves at the top of his list both boast plenty of experience and his move underlines his concerns over his current stable of central defenders because of skipper Ryan Shawcross’ niggly fitness problems.
The striker being sought is an indication of O’Neill’s desire to add fresh firepower, again on loan, in a bid to ensure Stoke maintain their recent upsurge in form.
A new face in attack has become all the more pressing in the short term because of Campbell’s hamstring injury which appears to be more serious than Stoke were hoping on Monday night.
Campbell had just scored what transpired to be the night’s only goal at The Hawthorns before pulling up 12 minutes later and immediately being hauled off to prevent further damage.
But early indications suggest there is damage and O’Neill is planning without him for this weekend’s game against Swansea at the bet365.
The club has not finished trying to move players out and on-loan duo Scott Hogan and Mark Duffy remain prime candidates ahead of next week’s deadline.
Shawcross is still on the mend from his calf strain, but O’Neill remains reluctant to fast-track him back into action and is happy to rely on the Danny Batth/Liam Lindsay central defensive partnership after back-to-back clean sheets against Millwall and Albion.
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