"We will move for a player and it's not Sean Gregan," said Lawrence. "We've lost interest in Gregan for the moment because West Bromwich are trying to make this into an auction.
"I know the value of Gregan and while that may be tweaked a little, we will not be paying substantially more.
"We may go back for Gregan in the future, but for now I'm looking at a new target for Friday's game. All I will say is he's slightly different player to Gregan."
City have been linked to Birmingham's Darren Carter, Bournemouth's Carl Fletcher and Rotherham's Andy Monkhouse (who is to undergo an exploratory operation on his knee).
There are no whispers yet as to who it might be.