Jimmy: We’re closing in on new players

JIMMY Floyd Hasselbaink says Burton Albion are closing in on the players they want to add – and, intriguingly, at least one of the arrivals he wants would be a player who has already played for the club.

Naturally, the Brewers boss was not naming names, admitting he has already been knocked back in the pursuit of some targets, but the next couple of weeks will be interesting.

“We’re working very hard behind the scenes on a few players. I think we are close on a couple,” said Hasselbaink.

“Some will be familiar, that you have seen before, and others won’t have been at the club before. I think there are a couple who people will be pleased with. If we can get them done, I think the fans will be happy with them.”

The manager has often admitted that patience is not his strongest characteristic but it is one he is being forced to develop.

“It’s been very hard. We’ve worked very hard on some players and they’ve ended up going to other clubs,” he said.

“But we keep on going. We have to be patient. We have to pick the right ones, that will fit. We don’t want quantity, we want quality.”

Hasselbaink was generally happy with the performance against Nottingham Forest, although he did not feel his team looked comfortable with being stretched by the Premier League outfit.

“It’s about fine tuning everything,” he said. “You want to suffer. You know when you’re going to play Forest that you’re going to suffer and at times we did.

“But we didn’t look OK with the suffering and that’s where we need to improve.”

That apart, the manager felt his team did well.

“We played well and there were some really good performances, some really good movement and some good periods in the game,” he said. “Defensively, we want to be challenged and you will get that against Forest, as they are a good team.

“We coped well for the majority of the game. There’s still a lot of work to be done but it was very encouraging and most importantly, everyone came off the pitch with no problems.

“We had a goal against from a set-piece which is something we must get better at.

”We also got in trouble a few times not getting close enough to stop the transition but, overall, Ben (Garratt, goalkeeper) didn’t have a lot of work to do.”