Stalled takeover impacting Gray’s recruitment

The delay of Hafiz Mammadov’s takeover at Hillsborough, while the Azerbaijani businessman deals with other commercial interests in his homeland, has put Gray’s incoming transfer dealings on hold. While several targets have already elected to move elsewhere, Gray has confirmed that others are still biding their time although that situation could change if developments are not forthcoming.

Gray said: “I am pestering the chairman (Milan Mandaric) and Paul Aldridge to allow me to get some players in. They know how important it is to get players in before the Brighton game (August 9).

“We have players teed up. We are just waiting for the nod to say ‘Right, you can go and get these players on board’.

“We have had players in the building who have had medicals and we are just awaiting the green light to get them on board.

“It’s frustrating because we have had players lined up before and they couldn’t wait and have moved on to other clubs.

“But I am confident we will get more players in before the Brighton game.”

They include two triallists –French midfielder Florian Tardieu and ex-Red Star Belgrade defender Dejan Kelhar.

Striker Caolan Lavery is set to be out for at least two months after damaging his posterior cruciate ligament in Sunday’s friendly draw at Doncaster Rovers.

Gray, whose summer recruit Kieren Westwood could also be out for a spell after tweaking a cartilage, said: “We thought it might have been an anterior cruciate ligament injury, but fingers crossed, it won’t be. It’s going to be a couple of months.”

Huddersfield Town have signed Nottingham Forest midfielder Radoslav Majewski on a season-long loan.

Doncaster Rovers captain Rob Jones is fit to resume full training following a career-threatening neck injury.

Jones, 34, has been out of action for almost nine months and underwent an operation on his neck earlier this year.