Ross County co-manager Stuart Kettlewell insists there has been no contact from other clubs over the future of forward Ross Stewart.
Stewart has been linked with English Championship clubs Stoke City and Blackburn Rovers in recent days, following a strong start to the campaign which has already seen him net 11 goals.
The 23-year-old was brought to Victoria Park from St Mirren last summer by Kettlewell and fellow co-manager Steven Ferguson, who were impressed by Stewart’s rise through the lower leagues having started his career with Ayrshire junior clubs Ardeer Thistle and Kilwinning Rangers.
After making a successful step up to the top flight, Kettlewell is not surprised Stewart is attracting attention but confirmed there has been no approach as yet.
Kettlewell said: “There’s hasn’t been anything at all. I’d spoken to Ross’s agent only last week, actually, someone I’m in contact with quite a bit.
“There’s nothing, although we wouldn’t be surprised if people were sitting up and taking notice. His record has been excellent.
“He has shown he can play at this level because I suppose there has been a question-mark there.
“He’s been absolutely superb for us. What I think we’ve enjoyed most is this gradual progression of his, from coming in originally and being in and out of the team, nicking a goal here or there. Now we’re starting to see his level of performance sustained.
“When you go into managers’ offices after games, you always speak about one another’s players.
“Ross is one that comes up more often than most, because of his journey in football from the juniors, Albion Rovers, on loan to Alloa – it is a great story and one I like personally.
“It doesn’t surprise us, but he’s very much our player and has another year on his contract after this one. We really don’t see anything happening imminently.
“Hopefully we’re doing something right if people are taking notice of some of our players and rightfully so in Ross’ case.”
County have been boosted by the return of Iain Vigurs to training last week following a foot operation, however Kettlewell is keen to take time over the midfielder’s return to action.
He added: “Iain will hopefully get a full week under his belt and we’ll see how it goes from there.
“It has been a frustrating one – we all know his quality and what he can bring to the table, but we really need to get his fitness up. It really has been stop-start in his time back at Ross County so we need to make sure he is 100% ready to go.
“We need to get plenty of training sessions and game-time under his belt before we can really try to push him on again.”
