SAM Allardyce fears he could miss out on Marseille hard-man Abdoulaye Meite for the second time in a year.

The package deal for the Ivory Coast international is likely to be just too hot for the Wanderers boss to handle in the January transfer window.

The French club - Wanderers opponents in the last 32 of the UEFA Cup - are prepared to listen to offers for the 25-year-old, but the combination of the fee of around £2 million and personal terms of a long contract make it highly unlikely that he is Reebok bound.

Rumours of competition from Premiership rivals Newcastle United appear to be without foundation. Toon manager Graeme Souness has denied making an inquiry for Meite and says he is not interested in taking him to St James' Park.

Wanderers could have the field to themselves, but with the price being prohibitive and the player himself saying he prefers to stay with Marseille, the likelihood is that Allardyce will have to pass up on the big defender, as he did last season when his previous approach came to nothing.

He has alternative targets but is more than likely to opt for loan deals to bring his squad up to scratch for the second half of the season.

"I'll probably need three players," he said, weighing up the potential impact of losing up to five players to the African Nations Cup, "and I would say they would be loans in the short term.

"If we could get them in long term, then that would be great, but whether we have got any funds available for purchasing players at this stage of the season would probably be difficult.

"We are well beyond our normal budget every year because we have been successful, but it seems to be an ongoing scenario where we can never really find enough funds to invest in players.

"We can't be doing any more than we are doing from an income point of view. When you get into the Premiership and look to maximise you income, then I think we have done that - almost to its full potential. The only thing that we still don't do is fill the Reebok Stadium out every single game, like other top six clubs. But even if we did, it wouldn't bring us millions and millions of pounds."