Slade wants four more before window shuts
show exactly what I’m about – as I did last season. It’s not been a brilliant start to the season for me, but I know coming here I’m used to the players, I’m used to the set-up, the training ground, the stadium - and I know what to expect from the fans, so hopefully I can knuckle down and get firing quickly.
“I can’t wait to get out there – it’s been a long process to get here and hopefully I can get on the pitch for Saturday and start producing the same sort of performances as I did last year.
“My ambition is to get us in the Championship and I’m pretty sure the feeling around the dressing room will be the same. Everyone here wants to play in the Championship – because we all want to play at the highest level we can.
“I know the chairman spent a lot of money putting together the training ground and when I walked in here today I even took a step back to admire what’s been built here over the last couple of years.
“For me, another big draw of the club is the style of football the manager wants to play. I watched Fleetwood down at Bristol City and I was taken back with how well the players that were here last year have improved and how much the new faces have strengthened the team.”
Burns becomes Uwe Rosler’s fifth signing of the January window after the arrivals of Ben Davies, Alex Reid, George Glendon and Joe Maguire.
City boss Russell Slade, meanwhile, is looking to bring in up to four more players in the January transfer window to boost City’s battle against relegation.
The Sky Blues boss is hopeful of drafting in two new strikers, one of whom is Derby County’s leading Under-23s scorer Charles Vernam.
City have already agreed a half season loan deal for the nippy 20-yearold front man who was due to join the club with Rams’ team-mate and centre-half Farrend Rawson this week.
However, suspensions to key County midfielders have resulted in manager Steve McClaren delaying the move until after this weekend as Vernam is wanted as cover on the bench for the Championship club. Rawson has trained with City this week and will go straight into the squad to face Fleetwood .
Slade has been running the rule over former £3.5million QPR signing Samba Diakite and Cardiff City’s Theo Wharton who have been on trial at Ryton all week. And the 56-year-old boss will make his final decision on the midfield pair on Monday when they are due to be given a game for City’s Under-23s against Crystal Palace at the Alan Higgs Centre.
Slade knows development squad player Wharton well from his time in charge at the Cardiff City Stadium while he is impressed by the pedigree of Diakite who played in the same midfield as Joey Barton when Rangers were in the Premier League.
The only doubt is over their fitness, particularly the 27-year-old Mali international because he hasn’t played since being released in the summer, having spent the first half of the current season without a club.