Rotherham United boss Paul Warne makes January transfer window admission

The Millers are in desperate need of reinforcements this month in order to reignite the club's fight against Championship football.

But Warne is anticipating problems getting targets in, but not due to financial reasons.

Chairman Tony Stewart has said he will back his manager this month, but Warne says there are other factors at play.

The hectic fixture list in the second half of the season will make clubs reluctant to allow players to leave, while the possibility of naming nine substitutes also hinders Warne's chances.

"Even if the chairman says I can throw any amount of money at it, it still isn't going to solve most of the problems," he said. "They aren't finance problems; it's more about clubs being reluctant to relinquish their players, especially attacking ones.

"Clubs are thinking 'Crikey, we've got a really condensed season after Christmas', and Covid could, potentially, make the schedule even more condensed if some games have to be rearranged because of further outbreaks in squads.

"The increase to nine substitutes has changed things as well. Before, there were players who weren't getting a sniff of the squad and now, with nine subs, they're in and around it.

"We have three players who we've earmarked and spoken to their agents just preliminarily to see if they are available. We were told all three were but then all three managed to play in a Championship game in the last match before Christmas."

Warne is looking to offload some of his own fringe players this month and has urged any of them who are offered a permanent deal to snap it up, given the uncertain future of the game because of the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

"My advice to them would be that if they can get a permanent deal to go past this summer then they should take it," Warne said. "They don't know what the football landscape will look like in the summer.

"In the same way, if we could sign a player on loan and he was in the last year of his contract maybe we could get him on a one-and-a-half-year permanent deal."