Cove Rangers manager Paul Hartley does not believe recruitment has gotten any easier with the influx of free agents this summer.
With the financial realities of the Covid-19 pandemic biting, many clubs opted to cut costs quickly and their primary target was the wage bill.
That has meant an increased number of players being available but Hartley has not seen a great deal out there that would improve his squad.
To date he has added Leighton McIntosh and Adam Livingstone to the Cove ranks, as they prepare for their first season in League One.
Hartley said: “I think it’s still difficult. It’s not easy; you can try get loans but you don’t know how long for or if some of the top-flight teams are wanting to hold on to their players for a bit longer.
“You think there’s a lot of players out there but you need to have players you think can bring something. There’s a lot of players out there but not ones I think are the right ones for us.
“We’re probably not the only club but we’ve had a lot of players thrown at us. Some of them won’t improve our squad – they need to be better than what we’ve got. The two we’ve got in will definitely add to the group.
“There’s not a great deal where you think ‘can they help us?’ There’s some players that have gone to a higher league where we thought we had a wee chance, so that’s the difficulty. But we’re happy with what we’ve got and we’ll be patient. Hopefully we can use the loan market to our advantage; we think Cove is a good sell for clubs to send players here.”
Cove initially targeted players in the north and north-east to strengthen their squad, with Jamie Redman, Aberdeen-based Fraser Fyvie and Rory McAllister all arriving. Dan Higgins, who had been living in the central belt, worked with Hartley at Dundee and subsequently moved up to Aberdeen.
The signings of Livingstone, who lives in Motherwell and was let go by the Steelmen this summer, and Broque Watson, who was playing for Annan Athletic, shows the League Two champions are willing to cast their net wider for the right players.
Hartley added: “You always try get good players. We think we’ve got the best players in this area, in the north, but you always have to look to improve the squad. We’ve got a good group already and for me it doesn’t matter where they come from. If they can fit into your squad and good players, we’ll try and get them.”