Lee Bowyer has claimed that it's 'so difficult' to make signings due to the restrictions in place in the EFL.
Charlton Athletic have real hopes of securing promotion back to the Championship this term but have given themselves work to do after a mixed start to the season.
As a result the Addicks find themselves in seventh position in the table having played more games than each of the sides in the play-off spots.
That means that there's a real need to strengthen this month.
Deals to sign Liam Millar on loan from Liverpool and Ronnie Schwartz from Midtjylland have already been completed, but with Bowyer looking to add more to the squad there's plenty of work still do.
However according to the boss, completing deals is proving much harder than they thought.
As quoted by London News Online, Bowyer said: “If I could, I would. Because there are too many who are in that comfort zone.
“It’s difficult. It’s so difficult. We’ve done well to get Ronnie through the door as one of the over-21 players.
“It’s going to be hard unless we move people out. But even that is not that easy. We could move a player out who is on say, for example, on £100 a week. But that doesn’t mean you can then replace them with a player on £100 a week. You might only have £30 of that £100 a week left that you can use. It’s so complicated.
“We’re always thinking ‘What about this player? What about that player?’ It’s so hard. Trust me, we’re trying our hardest to try and close that gap between us and the other squads.
“This cap is making it so difficult. It’s not the owner. He wants us to get stronger: ‘I’ll back you’. The only ones we might be able to do it is under-21 players and we know they are hit and miss. They aren’t going to come and help us get promoted today. They are players that we bring in for the future of the football club.
“This window is going to be really difficult.”
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The Verdict
It's going to be a tough month for Charlton Athletic.
While the Addicks have done well to bring in two players already this month, it simply means that it'll be more difficult if they're to bring anyone else in.
It may be the case that they need to offload one or two players to sign someone else - something that I'm sure Lee Bowyer will have fixed feelings about.