Kettlewell to target incomings for Ross County during January transfer window
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Stuart Kettlewell says Ross County will need to look for reinforcements in the January transfer window.
With the Staggies slipping to the foot of the Premiership table, questions have been raised about some members of the squad.
There is also the injury factor, with Kettlewell having so many players unavailable in recent weeks that he has been unable to name a full substitutes bench.
Competition for places is something that players and managers always speak about as a good thing, but before last night’s Betfred Cup quarter final at Livingston, County were down to the bare bones.
So Kettlewell feels it is likely the club will dip their toes back into the transfer marker when the window opens two weeks from tomorrow.
“The one thing I have to look at is our ability to field players, and who I can get on the pitch,” he explained.
“Form is one thing, but after another couple of players came off in the first half last Saturday, I have to look at it.
“It would be naive of us as a football club to say that we’re giving ourselves the best chance with the options we have to pick from.
“That’s no disrespect to the guys that are here, but every manager will tell you they want as many options as they can possibly get.
“Over the last few months I haven’t had anywhere near a full squad, so I have to look at the reliability aspect and see if we can get in some decent options in certain areas of the pitch.”
Of course, the specific areas Kettlewell will look to improve may be dependent on whether there are any players who end up leaving the Staggies.
There have been renewed reports this week that Ross Stewart could be on the move, with Aberdeen said to be interested in approaching the striker on a pre-contract basis next month.
Goals have been hard to come by in general for County, but Kettlewell says he is not just looking at freshening up his frontline.
“It’s safe to say we’re looking at all options,” he said.
“We want to see if the right player is out there, like we did by bringing in Jason Naismith. If other options come up not just in the striker position, but in other areas of the pitch, that’s something we’ll look at.
“We have to improve our results, our goalscoring and our goals conceded – we have to improve on all facets of the game as things stand.
“There have been reports, purely speculation, on Ross Stewart’s future. We’re happy with Billy Mckay, we’re happy with Oli Shaw who missed the last few games through injury.
“We’ll try and improve on all areas going into January, not just our strikers.”
