Phil Giles on the January Transfer Window

We tried to add one or two players. We made some offers, some of those were accepted, but the players went elsewhere: George Evans was a well-known one of those. Some of our offers weren’t accepted and we were given some big numbers for players which meant there was no value in us making those deals right now. There was always a plan to try and get players in, there was no change in direction, it was just one where we couldn’t get the players in who we thought would make a difference. We didn’t want to add players who we were unsure about or who we thought we were paying too much money for.

Phil Giles on Toumani Diagouraga

Toumani Diagouraga had 18 months left on his contract and he was at an age where the next contract for him was an important one. He wanted a very good contract, we didn’t feel we were able to offer him that here, and Leeds were. Leeds met our valuation for Toumani and we felt that, rather than wait for his contract to run down further, it was right thing to do right now especially as we have got cover in that area of the pitch.

Phil Giles on Jota

Before Christmas we had a few conversations with Jota where he explained his personal circumstances. We felt that this was affecting him on the pitch so we felt it was the best solution for everyone for him to go out on loan to sort out his personal situation. We all know what Jota was like last season and, in certain ways, I don’t feel like we have lost that player because the situation was such that we didn’t have that player with us right now. By letting him go on loan that leaves options open for the future and I hope that we can see him back here at some point.

Phil Giles on James Tarkowski

We spoke to James Tarkowski about his situation before Christmas. He explained it to me and I said that we would look to support him as we could but that we couldn’t allow him to leave for less than his valuation. In order for us to get there it took quite a long time for that deal to be thrashed out. I feel that we have got good cover in that position: Yoann Barbet was fourth choice until a couple of weeks ago but has come in and done really well. We have got Andreas Bjelland to come back in at some point as well so we have good cover there. It was a pretty good deal and we will be able to reinvest that money in the future.

The initial club statement on James was very matter of fact: we weren’t going to lie about the situation. Dean Smith had to come on television and talk about the situation that evening so we just said what had happened. It is important for us that things are done in the right way and we didn’t feel this was done in the right way so that is why we took the action that we did. Following on from that James wanted to get his point across and make his apology. We wanted to support him in that and we thought that it was the right thing to do to use the club website. He put together what he wanted to say and we said it was fine because it does refer to the fact that we were looking to support him with his situation at home. We don’t feel the statements contradicted each other. We didn’t think that what he did was right and there was a sanction for that but at the same time we understood his personal situation. That ultimately resulted in the transfer. If it hadn’t have happened we would of helped James to play for Brentford.

Phil Giles on squad depth

It is hard to sit here having lost three first choice players and not having brought any in and say that it won’t have an impact. In the long-term we are not in a bad situation because Jota is only on loan, Toumani’s departure gives Josh McEachran an opportunity and we have good cover at centre-back. Over the long-term we will find ourselves in good shape especially when we come to do more business over the summer.

Phil Giles on Alan Judge

We were never really close to letting Alan Judge go. We said that we had a valuation of him, as we do with all players. That was a high valuation given his importance to our team and no club has come near to it. I am delighted that we managed to keep him. We are having discussions with Alan on an on-going basis. There are a lot of variables in play as his next contract will be a big contract for him. Given his age it is important he gets the right deal for him but we also want the right deal for us. If we can do something then great but there are plenty of variables in play, Euro 2016 for example, that can impact things. We will keep talking and we will see where we get with that.

Phil Giles on potential loan players

We will monitor the loan window but it depends on how the season continues to go. Our model has been to bring loans in from Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. Part of that is that we are developing their players and if we are developing their players then we are not developing our own players. We don’t want to block Lewis Macleod or Scott Hogan by unnecessarily bringing someone in on loan. It is an option but we will see how that goes.

Phil Giles on the summer

We have identified players that we would like to bring in during the summer. Having signed none this window we will look to do more business in the summer. Some of the players that we would like to bring in are the better players at teams near the top of their divisions. It would be hard for clubs who are currently in promotion battles to countenance selling their best players and we would be the same. In order for a club to sell in January the value would have to be very high and we are not in a position where we can spend huge money on players. A better strategy is to wait for the summer where better value will be available.

Phil Giles on current player contract negotiations

We are having on-going discussions with players about contracts. A few players have contracts that end in the summer and then a few more end next summer as well. We are looking at all of those contract situations as we want to keep our best players. Those conversations will continue and hopefully we can resolve a few contracts soon.