Albion talking to parent clubs over Brad and Jake

BURTON Albion’s discussions are ongoing over extending the loan spells of Jake Hesketh and Bradley Collins – although the latter’s contract situation at Chelsea is “complicating things a little bit”, according to manager Nigel Clough.

The Brewers currently have a trio of loanees signed until January 2, with Southampton’s Hesketh and Jake Flannigan and Blues goalkeeper Collins all available up to and including the New Year’s Day trip to Bristol Rovers.

Flannigan is unlikely to return after the recurrence of a knee injury that limited him to a single Checkatrade Trophy appearance but Clough says the Brewers are keen to keep Hesketh and Collins for the rest of the season and are in talks with the parent clubs.

Albion also have Stephen Quinn, Dimitar Evtimov, Elliot Hodge and Kieran Wallace on short-term contracts which expire next month.

“They are just ongoing, discussions with them all, at the moment,” said Clough.

“With Bradley Collins, we are just waiting on Chelsea.

“I think he’s out of contract with them in the summer, so that is complicating things a little bit.

“Obviously, we’d certainly like to keep him and Jake if we can.”

Clough wants to maintain the current balance of his squad into the second half of the campaign.

And with the January transfer window on the horizon, he added that there has been no interest shown in any Burton players so far.

“We’ve not had anything at all, not one enquiry from anybody at the moment,” he said.

“That’s fine by us. We want to keep what we’ve got, if we can. Maybe one or two on the fringes we will tweak but, generally speaking, I think we’re happy with our squad.”

Burton striker Liam Boyce was the subject of several bids from Championship side Bolton Wanderers in August.