Paul Hartley is keen to strengthen his Cove Rangers squad in the coming weeks.
To date, Hartley has only added former Peterhead and Dundee forward Leighton McIntosh to his squad ahead of the new campaign.
Cove will begin their first game in League One at home to East Fife on October 17, with their first competitive fixture in the Betfred Cup coming 11 days earlier.
They made frugal use of the loan market last season, with Declan Glass a stand-out arrival from Dundee United. Chris Antoniazzi (Aberdeen), John Robertson (St Johnstone), Archie Meekison (United) and Josh Mulligan (Dundee) all signed temporary deals with the Aberdeen side during the last campaign, while Rory McAllister was a permanent arrival from Peterhead in January.
Hartley said: “We’re still a couple of players short. We’re running with 15 and if we could add three or four to that, we’ll have enough bodies to compete for the season.
“That may mean a loan or two, which may take a little bit longer. Being able to use nine on the bench now, clubs may hold on to players a wee bit longer. But we’ve got plenty of time.
“One or two permanent then a couple of loans – we’re just trying to see what players can help us, to bring more quality to the group we’ve already got.”
One thing Cove have in their favour is the stability of a settled squad. Harry Milne, Ryan Strachan, Scott Ross, Dan Higgins, Fraser Fyvie and Jamie Masson all penned new deals this year, with the core of their title-winning side remaining in place. Hartley added: “We’ve seen over the summer there’s a lot of players without clubs. A lot of teams are having to rebuild again.
“One thing we feel we’ve got in our favour is that we’ve got a settled team, lads that know each other pretty well and know how we work.
“They’ve got more experience and hopefully they can take it to the next level. This is a tough league and there’s some strong teams in there. We’ll try to be as best prepared as we can, which is why were doing eight weeks to get back.”