GLENN Roeder is "very confident" of adding some new faces to his squad before Thursday's transfer deadline - but does not expect Martin Taylor to be one of them.

The City manager has so far been frustrated in his attempts to add to the permanent signing of Matty Pattison, the loan arrival of Ryan Bertrand and the extensions to Mo Camara and Ched Evans' deals this month.

But Roeder firmly believed he was now close to securing the services of at least one new man - possibly even today - but said the chances to adding Birmingham's Taylor were getting thinner and thinner.

The Canaries have been locked in a stalemate with the St Andrews' club over the 28-year-old since his highly successful loan spell at Carrow Road came to an end last month.

And Roeder revealed the two clubs were no closer to reaching an agreement for a player who has already made it clear he would welcome a permanent switch to Norfolk.

"Martin is looking very, very doubtful," said Roeder, speaking at Monday morning's press conference ahead of the Championship clash at Southampton. "I wouldn't be holding your breath about Martin Taylor coming here this week. All I know is that he wants to come here. I don't think it's going to happen."

As well as the two clubs agreeing a fee for the former England under 21 international, another issue remains Birmingham's own shortage of central defenders, with the likes of Jaidi away on African Cup of Nations duty.

But Roeder believed a deal would still be unlikely, even if Alex Mcleish managed to strengthen that area of his squad this week.

"That's part of the problem now," he said. "Although they still seem confident they're going to, but that doesn't make me confident that even if they do we'll be able to strike a deal. Not in this window anyway. That might be something for the summer now."

However, Roeder did seem positive about making a new signing shortly, possibly even before Tueday night's trip to the south coast where Norwich will be looking to make it 10 games unbeaten in the league.

"I think we get a few in this week, and I do keep saying it, but I do believe we'll have a few new faces in by Thursday now," said Roeder, following a couple of false dawns, including last week when a deal had been agreed with a Premier League club to take one of their stars on loan, only for the player to veto the move.

"Hopefully something will happen later today. We've had a couple of requests for our players to go out on loan and at the moment I've had to turn them down because we're so thin on the ground. I've told those respective managers that when we've signed a few players they can take them on loan."

It had been suggested that Roeder's old friend Arsene Wenger could come to his rescue by making a number of his younger stars available for loan following their exit from the Carling Cup last week.

But Roeder said Wenger was in a similar position to himself, at least as far as squad numbers went.

"As far as I'm aware they're only going to let one lad out because they've got a lot of injuries this year and still in plenty of competitions," he said. "There's only one very young lad they're willing to let out which we might take. We have first option on him anyway. He's a real youngster. But like most of those Arsenal youngsters they tend to be able to cope with senior football at a very young age."

All the same, Roeder is keen to get all his business done well before the witching hour approaches on Thursday night. Leaving things until the last minute is a scenario he would like to avoid, if at all possible.