Sheridan says City shouldn’t be bottom
nice fella and he’s been welcomed by the team,” Slade told Sky Sports News.
“He’s been away in Turkey, that was his last football club. He’s back over in England now and wants to get back playing as quickly as he can.”
Yakubu and City have been talking about the finer details of a short-term contract which, if signed, could free the Nigerian international to make his debut at Oldham Athletic tomorrow, assuming he’s fit enough to play a part.
The two parties will have talked about wage figures before he was invited to train with the club in order to assess his fitness and it’’s not thought to be a major sticking points at this stage.
“I don’t think we’re a million miles away but sometimes just to find those extra few inches to bridge that gap,” said Slade, of the player who he hopes will help kick-start City’s relegation fight.
“You know one player can do that to find that spark for you to get you some momentum going forward and that’s what we’re looking for. That’s what we desperately need.”
Vernam could be fit to continue his loan spell at Coventry City in a fortnight.
The 20-year old Rams’ forward returned to Derby after suffering a shoulder injury in training last week. He visited a specialist but does not need an operation to pin the shoulder.
“The specialist thinks with rehab Charles in a couple of weeks will be able to go back to Coventry,” said manager Steve McClaren.
Meanwhile Watford loan striker Michael Folivi, who was forced to miss Saturday’s game with Millwall and Tuesday night’s Checkatrade Trophy semi-final with an ankle injury, was back in full training yesterday.
City face an Oldham side looking for the victory that would maintain their current LWLWLWL sequence – most recently a 1-0 success at relegation rivals Chesterfield followed by an equally tight reverse against MK Dons on Tuesday night.
Manager John Sheridan told the Latics website: “Home form is going to be massive. We’ve just had two games away from home and we could have drawn both games 0-0. We would have ended up with a point less had we drawn both games so we’re happy to have three and unlucky not to get four.
“Home games are massive and I expect us to win at home no matter who we are playing.
“We did excellent against Gillingham and Peterborough so I expect us to be on the front foot and get at them and see how Coventry deal with it..
“They are all tough games, Coven- try had a good result and they are at Wembley now so they will concentrate on the league,” he commented.
“They have something to look forward to now and they’ve got a really good experienced manager in the team and he will be putting belief into the players that they can get out of the position that they are in.
“You don’t think Coventry City should be bottom of the league anyway, they have got some good players but they are not winning games for some reason so we’ve just got to try to affect the game and try to take a result.”
“The games are very intense now and we had 10 men for half a game on Saturday as well so I think training takes care of itself.
“I more or less know what my team is going to be. One or two of my players need to work a bit harder and get a bit more sharpness in their game because I might not play the same team as I did on Saturday.
“We are at home and I think I said the same thing last year, I look at players who are going to be more effective at home than they will be away so I won’t be frightened of making changes, and there possibly will be one or two changes so I’ve got to look at us to win the game on Saturday.”