OWEN Coyle doesn’t believe that January signings will be the determining factor in Blackburn Rovers’ fortunes for the rest of the season, but still wants to bring in new players to the club.

Coyle is looking for up to three players to join the club before the transfer window closes on January 31, while also hoping to bring back Marvin Emnes from Swansea after his loan deal expired last week.

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Rovers are yet to make a signing this month, but have spoken to three players, and their respective clubs, about moves to East Lancashire.

Coyle’s side find themselves in the Championship bottom three with 20 games of the season left, but the Rovers chief believes his current squad is more than capable of getting free of the relegation zone.

And he is hoping that injury absences don’t bite as hard as they have in the first six months of the season in the remainder of the campaign.

“I think we’re always looking to strengthen and get better,” Coyle said.

“We know that we are going to be fine, if we don’t get anyone in, we will be fine, I have no doubt in my mind.

“We have been decimated by injuries and that’s why it’s important to add so that when the window closes on January 31 you make sure that the squad you have will see you through to the end of the season.

“If you get hurt by injuries as we did after the window closed then of course it can affect you.

“When we have our best team fit and available we’ve already shown that we can match up with anyone.

“It’s important that you try and add to your squad, it’s right to say that we need to add two or three to the squad, bearing in mind we have also returned one or two to their parent clubs.”

Rovers are still without Tommie Hoban, Elliott Ward and Adam Henley to long-term injuries, while a number of other first-team players have spent time on the sidelines since the season got underway.

Former loanees Jack Byrne and Martin Samuelsen have already returned to parent clubs Manchester City and West Ham, while talks are on-going with Hammers left-back Stephen Hendrie over his future having not featured since October.

Coyle says Football Director Paul Senior is working hard behind the scenes in a bid to bring in new players, and remains hopeful that owners Venky’s will give the green light for funds to be made available to strengthen this month.

“To my mind, Paul has come in and I have to give him credit, he is working very hard to get those deals over the line,” the Rovers boss said.

“We’ve targeted two or three players, I know that through dialogue with those players and their clubs, they would like to come on board and help us at Blackburn Rovers.

“I think now Paul is working hard to get that green light to get the deals over the line.”

Academy graduates Ryan Nyambe, Connor Mahoney and Willem Tomlinson were all on the bench against Ipswich Town last weekend, while Lewis Travis and Scott Wharton have also been a part of the matchday squads recently.

But while Coyle has high hopes for the club’s young players, he says Rovers need proven players to come through the door this month.

“We do have good young players at this club, but of course you want to add players who are ready to play week in week out,” he added.

“We operate in the sixth or seventh best league in Europe, the league is of a very high standard, so we want to make sure that we have the right quality players to help us deal with that.”