GLENN ROEDER has confirmed his interest in taking Shaun Wright-Phillips to Newcastle United on loan next month and will make inquiries before the end of the year.

The Newcastle boss earmarked Wright-Phillips as one of his top two targets last summer but was unable to do a deal with Chelsea for the winger.

However, it is understood the Blues have finally run out of patience with the England right-winger, who has made just 13 league starts during his stay at Stamford Bridge, and are ready to move him on, preferably at a price.

Chelsea's valuation - they paid £21m for him just 16 months ago - remains higher than what clubs are prepared to pay so they could be forced to let him leave temporarily until the end of the season.

And Newcastle, determined to strengthen in the transfer window after being hit by injuries, admit taking the 25-year-old to St James' Park is an avenue worth pursuing.

"Any Premiership club, if Shaun Wright-Phillips was available on loan, would be interested," said Roeder. "He is a highly talented young player and at Manchester City he was their best player.

"Why it has not worked out for him at Chelsea is unknown. He is a huge talent. We have not made any inquiries for any players yet. That doesn't mean we don't want to in the future.

"It is no reason for our fans to panic because we have got targets and we will be dealing with these over the next ten days or so."

Roeder met with chairman Freddy Shepherd on Thursday to discuss his targets and Wright-Phillips' name cropped up.

And the manager has stressed the importance of acting quickly to avoid missing out before January 31, as was the case in August, when he failed to bring in who he wanted before deadline day.

"Too much has been made of the meeting already," said Roeder. "I speak to him on a regular basis and the potential of bringing players in comes up all the time.

"We would like to strengthen. The last thing I want to do is fill a hole with a player we will be stuck with who is not good enough. That would be easy to do. We want players here for the long term.

"You can't get players registered for January 1 anyway. All clubs are in the same boat. It's a push to have them in for the FA Cup third round on January 6 or whatever. We do want faces in, though."

One of those who could be among the arrivals is Cameroon striker Pierre Boya.

Boya has been on trial with the Magpies this week from Partizan Belgrade and impressed during a reserves friendly with Carlisle on Thursday.

He returned to Belgrade last night but Roeder confirmed the 23-year-old is an option worth considering.

"We've just had a look at him," said Roeder. "He was worth taking a look at and he has done OK. We are not going to say whether we are going to sign him but when he leaves it is not the end of it. We will make a few discreet inquiries."

Roeder wants to concentrate on the Christmas fixtures for now, however, and that means a date at St James' with Tottenham this afternoon.

Spurs have had a mixed season but won for the first time on their travels in their last outing at Manchester City last weekend.

Roeder said: "It doesn't make any difference.

"They will want to continue winning away from home after getting that result.

"We want to make sure that our last game leading to the Christmas period is a favourable result.

"If we can grab three points it would be a fantastic effort from where we were ten weeks ago."