Brentford have made their first signing of the January transfer window but boss Thomas Frank expects further recruitment to be kept to a minimum.
Former Denmark international Jonas Lossl has joined on loan from FC Midtjylland until the end of the season with an option to make the move permanent as the club contend with fitness concerns over goalkeepers David Raya and Alvaro Fernandez.
Frank insists any additional new arrivals will have to fulfil strict criteria as he takes confidence from his squad negotiating a tricky period marked by injuries and Covid.
“Historically we almost have never done too much in January, for at least the last five years I’ve been here. So I don’t think it will be a busy transfer window,” Frank said.
“I don’t just want to bring in numbers. If we want to bring someone in, he needs to fit the role we are looking for.
“He needs to fit the character profile in terms of being a good guy who wants to work hard and be part of our culture. All those things need to get ticked.
“I then say ‘these are all done’ and then apparently there’s also something about price and salary!
“One of the reasons we have a squad is that when we have injuries there are people ready to step in.
“Unfortunately we’ve been very unlucky with injuries so we have been able to see people stepping in – Charlie Goode and Mads Bech Sorensen at centre-back and Mads Roerslev and Dominic Thompson.
“All of them have done well so we are in a good place, but we are structured and we have a clear strategy.
“Can we get the right player into the right position with the right potential for the right price? Then we do it, which is difficult sometimes.”
Lossl, who won one cap in 2016, had two loan spells at Huddersfield and also spent two years at Everton, but the 32-year-old failed to make an appearance at Goodison Park.
“Jonas is a very good goalkeeper who will bring with him lots of experience,” Frank said.
“He has played in England and in the Premier League and we also know him from his work with FCM. He fits the criteria of what we want in a goalkeeper with his feet and in his penalty area.
“The most important thing is that he will add to the experience within our goalkeeper group in our first Premier League season. We have David Raya injured and Alvaro Fernandez has missed some training recently.
“This gives us an extra experienced goalkeeper in training and also someone who has played Premier League games and will be used to that matchday environment if he starts a game for us.”
