NICK Watkins has moved to reassure Swindon fans that deals for Charlton duo Bradley Wright-Phillips and Danny Green and Cheltenham’s Marlon Pack are still alive.

Town attempted deadline day loans for the trio but after agreeing switches with all three, could not obtain ratification from the Football League to complete the deals.

Chief executive Watkins has now revealed that the reason for the Football League’s course of action was because the process of selling the club is ongoing.

“We aren’t in a position to sign loan players currently, despite the fact Paolo (Di Canio, boss) worked hard to secure three players,” said Watkins.

“Regulations are such that until the transition (the sale of the club) is complete, transfers are restricted.”

Watkins confirmed that he saw no reason why the loan deals should not go through once the emergency loan window opens on February 8, adding: “It’s just a question of going through the formalities of completion now.”

The completion date is scheduled for this coming Saturday.

When contacted by the Advertiser, an official from the Football League declined to comment on why the loan deals had not been ratified.

Both Wright-Phillips and Danny Green trained with their Charlton teammates as normal yesterday and despite returning to Cheltenham, Pack trained on his own.

Meanwhile, ex-Swindon full-back Michael Rose will not face his former club in League One on Tuesday after having his contract at Colchester cancelled by mutual consent.

Rose scored the only goal of the game when the U’s beat Town at the County Ground in October, and his celebrations riled some members of the Swindon crowd.

He was subsequently subjected to vile insults on Twitter and both Swindon and Colchester condemned the behaviour of certain users of the social networking site.