STEVE Kean is still waiting for the green light to capture his main January transfer targets – after admitting he still had no clue what his budget was for the crucial month ahead.

Blackburn Rovers travel to Manchester United on Saturday bottom of the Premier League and, with seven senior players struggling for fitness, under fire boss Kean is desperate to strengthen his squad when the window reopens on Sunday.

Fulham striker Andy Johnson and Nottingham Forest full back Chris Gunter are understood to be on his wish list, along with another defender and a central midfielder, as Kean recognises the importance of getting all business done quickly.

Despite spending several hours on the phone with co owner Anuradha Desai this week, Kean admitted he was still unsure about the size of the kitty available and did not expect today's meeting with directors to deliver an exact sum.

The latest accounts released this week will concern Rovers fans, after an £18m loss was revealed, leaving questions over how much Venky’s are willing to invest and whether they will sell the club’s prized assets to finance any signings.

Kean said: “The finance side of the club is dealt with by the directors. Hopefully the numbers can come back saying we can be active at a good level.

“Money has come into the club with Phil Jones and Nikola Kalinic going, and I would like to think we can keep the majority of the squad together.

“We want to keep the squad together and build on that, add faces rather than take them away, and that is very important for the next two to three years.

“I am optimistic I will get that backing.

“We will not be talking about a final figure. We will just be discussing areas where we want to strengthen.

“I don’t know if they know what they can afford. I have just been asked to compile a list of players in the areas in which we want to strengthen and after initial talks, that were very positive, we are trying to get people in very quickly.”

Kean’s future as Rovers boss appears to have again been saved by Desai, despite her advisors attempting to convince her it was time for a change, and he is now hoping to be backed with cash.

He said: “We will be talking about areas where we want to strengthen but we won’t mention any names or figures to the press, we will just get on with it.

“I think we should be doing it that way because in the past names got out – not through our end – but maybe through the players being so excited about coming to Blackburn Rovers and when they don’t materialise it ends up being a negative feel rather than being close on a number of occasions.

“I would not like to speculate on any names because that is not fair to anyone.

“We have mentioned names before but we will try to keep a lot of what we are doing private.

“Everybody knows we need to get players in during the early part of the window, because the fixture list that we have got in January has very good games and we would like to strengthen then.”