Stoke City aren't expecting any imminent transfer business this month as manager Michael O'Neill was asked about their interest in Manchester City defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis.
City could review Harwood-Bellis' loan at Anderlecht this month after he has found himself out of favour in Vincent Kompany's plans in Belgium.
The centre-back was first choice this season until he joined the England under-21 squad in November, but an unavoidable late return saw him lose his place and he has played just 12 minutes since.
If City cut Harwood-Bellis' current spell short and look to find another loan for him this month, Stoke are the strongest contenders to take him, as MEN Sport reported on Sunday, but no final decision has been made.
Speaking after Stoke's FA Cup win over Leyton Orient, it seems there are no advanced plans from the Potters either, as O'Neill gave a blunt response when asked about Harwood-Bellis and other January transfer options.
“No, nothing’s imminent. The players that I’m linked with certainly aren’t in our price range,” said O’Neill.
“We’ve spoken to some players and their agents and those players are looking for financial situations which are out from where we are at this minute in time.
“January is a short-term market as well and we need one or two players to move the other way to free up some finances if we can do that.
“We obviously have a lot of players out with injury and Mario Vrancic has suffered a hamstring injury as well, which is a big blow.”
O'Neill also spoke highly of former City youngster D'Margio Wright-Phillips, son of Shaun, who made his senior debut in the Orient game.
“Certainly Wright-Phillips has shown a lot for us,” said O’Neill.
“He’s different from the other attacking players that we have but equally we have to be able to get the ball into him to get the most out of him as well.
“If you play back to front, he’ll not be effective in the game and when he was really good in the game it was when we built through the pitch and built the game cleverly and got the ball into Clucas and Ince and wee Joe Allen and that brings D’Margio into the game and you start to see his quality.
“We certainly can be pleased with what he gave us against Leyton Orient and it’s up to him now if he keeps getting opportunities to continue to impress.”
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