Crawley Town boss gives update on how many signings he is hoping to get in before transfer window shuts

The January Transfer Window slams shut at 11pm tonight (Thursday, February 1) and so far it’s been relatively quiet so far for the Reds with keeper Ryan Sandford the only new signing and Laurence Maguire extending his loan deal.

But Lindsey, speaking at the Morecambe press conference, was confident fans can expect to see some new names through the door.

He said: “I'm waiting for an update from the owners. They've been working extremely hard in the background, trying to put things together. But I'm still hopeful that we'll get one or two, or if not, maybe three in the building between now and 11 o'clock tonight.”

Reds have a relatively small budget but we asked Lindsey whether having a bigger budget would make things harder during the window. “First of all, there's a lot of work that goes in behind the scenes just to bring one player in, no matter what your budget is,” he said.

“We've had a few Zoom meetings with the owners and kind of looked at what we want to bring in and looked at not just the areas we want to bring in on the pitch, but also personnel targets. And then the guys are in the background are going to work, trying to make that happen.

“Whether we've got a big budget, small budget or an indifferent one, it's the same work, you know. I think that the squad that we built in the summer has done extremely well. Do they need a little bit of help to have that final push? Yeah, I think they do.”

“But if it comes to 11 o'clock tonight and there's no business, then so be it. I really back my squad that I've got still, I really do. Do we need some help? Yeah, I think we do.”

And where does Lindsey think they need to strengthen? "I'll stand here and say that I think that it's clear to see that maybe another striker, maybe a midfield player who can play kind of different positions as well, and possibly even a defender coming in. That would be kind of the areas that we're looking at. But like I say, I don't think it matters whether you've got a big, massive budget, a small budget or whatever it is, the work still needs to be done no matter what.”

He added: “I think it is clear to see that Dan Orsi's done an amazing job on his own as a striker. And there's not been very many times I've been able to take him off the pitch because we've not really had a natural striker to replace him and give him kind of a rest at times, you know? So I suppose, in a way, that's probably one area we do need. But like I said, I don't want to say that's it.”

There has been movements around other clubs in League Two but Lindsey has been mainly focussed on what Crawley Town are doing.

He said: “I haven't really took much notice. I've kept my eye on it, obviously. I saw obviously Romeo Hutton went from Swindon to Gillingham and I know kind of he went for good wages.

“So fair play to him. There's been another one or two different ones that have been highlighted. But listen, I'm focusing on us and us only that's what I have to do.”

Crawley host Morecambe at the Broadfield Stadium on Saturday. Lindsey said any new players could be included in the squad for that game. He said: “It depends on which ones we get in. I've prepared the team accordingly for Saturday without them, because they have to but we'll see what happens.”