Inverurie Locos manager Richard Hastings believes Kieran Shanks could reach a higher level than the Championship.
The 20-year-old striker has joined Arbroath after a prolific spell at Harlaw Park.
Shanks joined the Railwaymen in November 2020 and netted 30 times in 44 appearances with Arbroath – who finished second in the Championship – moving to sign him.
Although disappointed to lose Shanks Locos boss Hastings believes he can thrive at Gayfield.
He said: “With the season Kieran had and the way he looks after himself and goes about his business it’s no surprise that clubs outwith the Highland League have been having a look.
“Now he’s got his opportunity at a higher level and it’s probably at the highest level out of the teams that came in.
“That’s what you want if a player is moving on you want them to go to the highest level.
“Now it’s a chance for Kieran to test himself in the Championship and hopefully he can kick on to bigger and better things from there.
“It will be a challenge for him, that’s for sure, but he does have the attributes that clubs look for.
“He’s still young enough to develop, we saw quite a bit of development in him during last season working with him.
“There’s no doubt Kieran will develop further and if that happens then who knows where he can go.”
Finding a replacement
For Hastings and Inverurie the challenge now is to try to replace Shanks.
Although he is looking at external options the Garioch gaffer believes there are also players already at the club who can step into the breach.
He added: “You have to look at that, he scored 27 goals for us last season so it means the challenge for us will be replacing him.
“It’s always the case in football that it’s difficult to replace players like Kieran.
“But we also know that good players will always attract attention and it wouldn’t have been the right thing to not let Kieran progress in his career.
“We have to look at replacing him and see what we can do about whether it’s internally or externally.
“Every manager is always looking, you never switch off.
“I think what’s happened with Kieran bodes well for our future because it shows what’s possible.
“We’ve got a lot of young players who are very talented both in the first-team squad and the youth set-up.
“The club has a good youth programme and although we’ll look externally we’re also very excited about the young talent we’ve got at the club.”
