Cambridge United head coach Mark Bonner hopeful of incomings during January transfer window

Head coach Mark Bonner has revealed that Cambridge United are ‘working really hard’ to bring in new signings during the January transfer window.

Bonner’s squad depth has been severely tested at times during the first half of the season as injuries took hold, which coupled with a tough run of form in recent weeks, has left the U’s sitting just a place and one point above Sky Bet League One’s relegation zone.

However, while he has admitted that patience might be needed until the right players become available, United are in a healthy position that will allow them to be active as soon as business is permitted.

“Ready to go on day one (of the window) suggests we’ll be having players walking in on day one and it’s not as easy as that because players don’t necessarily want to commit straight away and club’s aren’t ready to commit,” he said.

“In a lot of cases there are clubs that have to have players leave before they can bring players in so that might slow the process down a little bit.

“What I can say is we’ve got the backing to add to the squad, which is really important. We don’t have to have players out before we get players in and we have no loans currently, so we’ve got the ability to trade straight away.

“We’re certainly working at full pace to try and add to the squad and make it better and stronger and deeper and more competitive. Our plan is to come out of January stronger than we currently are and create that real edge and intensity and competitiveness in the squad, throughout the whole squad.

“Whether or not we can do that from the very first game I’m not so sure, certainly Sheffield Wednesday on January 2 will be a stretch and Bristol Rovers on January 7 might be as well but there’s potential our squad could look different every week of January.

“We’ll just have to play it by ear but certainly there’s an intent to make the squad stronger and to add to what we’ve already got.

“I think that will get the best out of the other players as well because between now and then we’ve got to really push and find the level that we done last week (against Plymouth Argyle) because we know that we’ve got good players, a good team, and the basis of something and we want to freshen that up again in January.

“We’re working really hard on that at the moment and we’ll see how that all plays out over the next few weeks.”