FOOTBALL: Southend United boss Paul Sturrock is looking to bolster Southend's on the pitch strength.

He said: "January will be a busy time for us as we look to strengthen our squad for the second half of the season.

"Over the last few days our whole staff have been spending most of their time ringing managers, chief executives, coaches and scouts to find out what players are available, while also letting them know which of ours we want to move on as well.

"We are all due to meet up today to find out where we’re at and to look at what players we want to bring in.

"If we can’t get our first choice then we will aim for the second, but we do need to bring more people in because we haven’t had enough players carrying the can for us this season.

"At the same time it’s important we move other players on and I know supporters are worried that Anthony Grant may leave.

"But I would like to calm their fears by telling them that we have not had a single bid or enquiry about him so far.

"We are keen to keep all of our quality players but, at the same time, we are a football club and a business and every player does have their price.

If someone matches our valuation of a player then we would obviously have to think about it.

"However, we would only accept it if we could sort out bringing someone else in, so it would be like a revolving door.

"We’ve managed to make our first signing of the window in Michael Comminges and I’m pleased to have brought him to the football club.

"He’s what I would describe as a utility player and can play right wing, central midfield, left wing, right back and left back, so I think he will prove to be a good signing.

"I’ve worked with him before at Swindon but the problem we have is that he’s come here having not played much football in recent months because of an injury.

"He has been training for the last couple of months with Carlisle but the bad weather meant he wasn’t able to play many games while he was there.

We have to be aware of that and we need to improve his match fitness.

"He will come on during matches but he could start and be taken off if I decide to give him a baptism of fire against Chesterfield on Saturday.

"That will be a very hard game as they are top of the league, but we played well against them earlier on in the season and were unlucky to lose. We have a tough run of fixtures coming up though as we play the top two in our next games before playing Bury, who are fifth, so we will need to be at our best and have the fans right behind us.