Kyle Lafferty has filled the role for the majority of the season, but with Coyle eager to push the Northern Ireland international through the middle, he has his sights set on a permanent solution.

He has not ruled out revisiting January transfer window target Marcelo Adrian Carrusca, while admitting Middlesbrough's Adam Johnson – who had a successful loan spell at Watford earlier in the season – was also an option he considered.

And Coyle said yesterday: "I would have loved to have done the deal, he's an Argentinian international and it would have been exciting for the fans, a natural wide left player who would have freed up Kyle to play through the middle.

"You never say never, but the difficulty was, in terms of the finance, we were only paying a part of his salary in the initial stages, until that wasn't the case in the latter stages.

"There were probably seven or eight different, which we considered, wide left players.

"We want that type of player in the wide left position to give us that balance, so that we weren't not one-dimensional in terms of an out-and-out winger on the right and not one on the left.

"You have to adjust to what you've got, but the search continues and we'd love to add that type of player to the left hand side to give us that balance."

He added, on wingers in general: "There's certainly a lack in that type of player, which I think makes the game poorer.

"We all like wingers, as I like to call them, playing and getting by people, getting crosses in and I think the more teams that play with them, there'll certainly be more exciting football.

"It might lead to more goals against, but I think it will provide that threat going forward.

"It's an entertainment sport, and I think that type of player provides entertainment."

Coyle could maybe have the answer closer to home, with Besart Berisha capable of playing on either flank or through the middle, and his recovery from a cruciate knee ligament injury is nearly complete: "Bes has still got a bit to do, I've not seen him play, but he's trained with us for the last month or so, and he just needs confidence to play games and take himself on from there.

"There are a couple of pro-am games on the pitch in the last week of the season, and Bes will play in those games with myself, just to give him a bit of confidence, rather than playing in a competitive game.

"He'll be back in pre-season hopefully flying, and he'll get the chance.

"They'll all get the opportunity.

"If they prove their worth, they stay in the team.

"But I won't risk him in the last reserve game, to be out for as long as that and to risk him in a competitive game would be naive at best."

Coyle has yet to see the Albanian international in action, and he added: "I've seen bits and pieces of what he's done in training, and he's certainly got something, there's no doubt about it.

"He's got a terrific attitude, he wants to play, and sometimes you've got to put the reins on him, because he's desperate to push on.

"But I've worked in football a long time, and I've never known a physio as top-drawer as Andy Mitchell, and I've got so much faith in him."

Steve Jones is also an option, if the Northern Ireland international can recapture the form of the early months of his Burnley career.

Jones is currently on loan to former club Crewe, and Coyle said: "Jonah had been involved in the 16s, then he was injured, and when he came back again, he was down the pecking order.

"Going to Crewe was an opportunity for him to get playing games again at a decent level.

"As it is, he's had a couple of injuries there as well, but he's still under contract, so he'll be coming back and he's another one we'll have a look at."