Alexander seeking ‘final ingredient’ in transfer window
GRAHAM Alexander has the ‘final ingredient’ at the top of his wish-list as he aims to strengthen his Salford City side during the January transfer window.
Despite 13 senior arrivals at the club since the beginning of the summer, Alexander admitted that the Ammies will pursue targets in the market once more as the window opens tomorrow.
He said: “We’ve just got to try and work to improve the team if we can. We’ve got real good players already in the club, but where we are in the league suggests that we need to improve.
“I think any team – even those at the top – will look to strengthen, so we’d be fools not to try. It’s important we understand where we need to improve as a team and try and add the right players if we can.”
With their squad totalling 23 players – and a further five senior figures returning to the club in January after the expiry of their respective loans – Alexander hinted that he is expecting departures to accommodate any new arrivals.
“If we do move players in, there might need to be players going the other way, but that’s not something you can control as a club. All we have to do is work exceptionally hard to try and improve and help the players, because you see the effort they are putting in every week.
“Personally, I don’t think we’ve got the rewards that we deserve (over the season), but we might need that final ingredient in there to actually get that, so if we can and help this group of players be successful then we’ve got to try.”
The Ammies, who were winless in five League Two outings, enter 2020 on the back of two victories, having defeated Crewe Alexandra 3-1 at home and Oldham Athletic 4-1 away – their two biggest EFL wins – but Alexander insists their work is only just beginning.
“We’ve got to understand how far and how quickly the club has moved forward, but we can’t look back at the past. We don’t want to just come into this division and survive; we want to compete with the best and be up there with the best.
“We know that it’s been a really unique and rapid journey for the club, but we’re here for a reason [and that’s] because we’ve earned it. We’ve got to continue to earn it – that for me is where we’ve got to base our second half of the season on.
“This is not the peak or the pinnacle of what we want to do so we’ve got to understand there’s a lot of work ahead.”