Ronnie Moore awaits verdict in budget loans hunt

Jan 22 2008 by Nick Hilton, Liverpool Daily Post

TRANMERE hope for a positive response from Bristol City manager Gary Johnson this week when they inquire about extending the loan of Jennison Myrie-Williams.

The teenage winger, coming to the end of his second month with Rovers, is showing enough promise for manager Ronnie Moore to ask about keeping him at Prenton Park a little longer – perhaps even until the end of the season.

Moore says it would also like to recruit another wide player and introduce a new striker before the close of the January transfer window on Thursday of next week.

But the arrival of fresh faces would have to be balanced with players going out under a regime of tight budget controls following Tranmere’s exit from the FA Cup.

That was the pattern last Friday when Rovers secured the permanent transfer of full-back Andrew Taylor from Blackburn while releasing Carl Tremarco to Wrexham on the same day.

Moore said: “We are looking to bring more players in. We are talking about what we can do with the Jennison Myrie-Williams situation. A lot will depend on Gary Johnson and what he thinks, whether he wants to call the player back or whether we can take him until the end of the season.

“I would still like to bring in another winger to give us more options in the wide positions. We are trying very hard. It is no exaggeration to say we have made 70 to 80 phone calls to other clubs.”

Any new temporary signings will probably have to come from the ranks of relatively inexperienced players at Premiership and Championship clubs. Moore says the cost of taking senior players on loan is simply too high.

He explained: “The availability of senior players is very limited to us. For instance, we inquired about Steve Jones at Burnley and Stuart Elliott at Hull, who are experienced players on very big money. There is no chance of those clubs giving us some help in meeting their wages, so we can’t do it. It’s like wanting a Mercedes but only being able to afford something a little less reliable. That’s what happens when you are in League One, not the Championship.

“So it means we are left with young players that the bigger clubs are prepared to send out to gain some experience. You are gambling with them because they are often untried players.”

Moore’s “irons in the fire” include an approach to his former Tranmere team-mate Steve Coppell, the manager of Reading, over winger James Henry. The 18-year-old played in 11 games for Bournemouth in a two-month loan spell at the end of 2007, scoring four goals. Moore said: “The boy had a good spell at Bournemouth and I feel he is ready for league football. Steve Coppell is having a little think about whether he wants him to come out again. We are just waiting for the phone call from someone who says: Let’s do it.

“There are one or two in the Championship who might help us. We were close to bringing in a lad from Coventry but they had a stomach bug in the camp and picked up a few injuries.”

Moore is keen to maintain a positive mood at Prenton Park after Rovers picked up a first win of 2008 at Millwall last weekend.

The result lifted them to within six points of the teams in the play-off positions, with two home games to follow, against Yeovil on Saturday and Gillingham next Tuesday. “I felt Millwall was probably going to be the most important game we’ve had in the league this season,” Moore said. “We did ourselves proud and got the result we needed. If we had not won it would have been so much harder to get back into the play-off positions.

“Performance-wise we played better in the FA Cup at Hereford last Wednesday and lost. Saturday was the first time since I’ve been here that I came off the pitch and thought: How did we win that one?

“The answer was we earned our luck because we were dogged and committed.”