Alex Neil is convinced Norwich City's festive surge will make his life easier in the January sales.

The Canaries' chief opted to downplay reports of an £8m deal for Everton's Steven Naismith and a £2.21m raid for Dinamo Zagreb defender Ivo Pinto, but Neil is in no doubt City's recent upturn will impress potential targets.

'It certainly helps in attracting players. There is no doubt about that,' he said. 'If you are sat in the bottom three at this stage, a lot of people can't see anything beyond what is right in front of them, which is obviously the league table. The fact we are sitting 15th I think will certainly help our cause in terms of bringing bodies in. There is no question, but at this stage it is just about more discussions. What happens now is every agent in the land touts their players.'

Neil knows he must balance City's Premier League progress on the field with the search for reinforcements during a busy January. The Scot also expects to have plenty of decisions to make regarding his fringe players.

'As far as I am aware there have been no enquiries,' he said. 'It all depends on the interest shown in them and where we are and who we manage to attract to come here. I think the squad is at the stage now where we can't afford to lose any more players. We have a tight knit squad and we will need bring bodies in before players start to leave.

'There is no point simply adding numbers, we want to add quality and if there are players left over at that point it might be better for their careers to move on. What I would say is the lads here now want the squad to be freshened up so we can fight to make sure we are competitive..'

Neil is also keeping an open mind on potential raids from Premier League rivals for any of his squad, after the summer saga involving Lewis Grabban and former club Bournemouth.

'I would need to assess the situation, who the club would be and who the player in question would be and also the finances and repercussions of that,' he said. 'There is whole number of factors that would come into my thought process if that situation did arise and a whole range of variables I have to take into account.'