Burnley boss looks to tie up Mee deal

Howe has already completed a permanent deal for Manchester City right-back Kieran Trippier, who was on a season-long loan at the club.

And he is eager to add the signature of fellow City loanee Ben Mee on a full-time basis.

He hopes to strengthen further, however, and Saturday’s FA Cup exit at Premier League Norwich City only confirmed his thinking: “We’ve known the areas of the squad that we want to improve – we’ve known that for a long time,” he said.

“This game probably highlights things to us a little more, but it doesn’t change what we know we need.

“It’s just about finding the right players at the right prices.

“We’ll continue to look right up to the window closes, to see if we can add quality to the squad.”

Howe will add to his squad, in terms of returning players, for the trip to Middlesbrough on Saturday, with Trippier returning from a one-match suspension, and Sam Vokes available again after being refused permission by parent club Wolves to feature at Norwich.

Saturday’s game spoiled Trippier’s ever-present record this season, and Howe said: “In terms of the league, it wasn’t too bad for Kieran to miss the game, but it goes to show how important he is to us.

“With respect to David Edgar, who did an admirable job filling in for him, Tripps gets forward great for us, and with the system Norwich played, our full-backs are our out balls and we didn’t really have that.

“I thought we missed Tripps badly, which we thought we might. That’s no discredit to anyone that came in, but we didn’t have any real width.

“David Edgar has come on leaps and bounds this season, and I thought he did okay at right-back. He used the ball pretty well, but I think we did miss Tripps.

“Hopefully, we’ll learn from it and come back stronger.”

After a remarkable run in the league, Howe hopes to focus on kicking on in the second half of the season, starting at the Riverside: “We knew coming into Leeds, Norwich and Middlesbrough away that they were tough games.

“We were desperately unlucky to lose against Leeds, playing for so long with 10 men, and I don’t think losing here should knock us at all, against a very good side.

“We competed as best we could, and our intention is to go to Middles-brough and continue our good league form.

“Hopefully, we have a lot to look forward to over the second half of the season.”

Howe will check on Ross Wallace, who came off after the break after being hurt in a collision with teammate Mee, who was off-balance after being fouled by Grant Holt: “It’ll be interesting to see how Ross is. I think Ben caught him by accident after he was fouled, but hopefully it’s not too serious.”

And Andre Amougou, hauled off after Norwich’s fourth goal, was substituted by choice and not due to an injury.

Howe refused to elaborate, saying: “Andre’s fine.”