Arbroath’s new head of recruitment Barry Sellars has a tough job on his hands.
The former Lichties midfielder was appointed to fill the new role last week and will have been thrust straight into plans for future signings.
His talent identification team of Craig Ireland and Brown Ferguson will be looking at potential targets for next season.
But they will equally have their work cut out to bring in players to help lift the Gayfield side up the Championship table.
They will eye up potential players and report back to Dick and Ian Campbell who then have the final say.
Sellars has previously scouted for Arbroath and is understood to have had a hand in some signings last campaign.
He spoke of the increasing challenge of recruiting players in a recent podcast.
“It’s a difficult time and it seems to be getting worse,” he said on an episode of Arbroath FC’s Smokies and Wine.
“The amount of players available to come out on loan are minimal and every team is chasing the same player.”
Campbell is said to have the biggest budget at his disposal of any Arbroath boss before him.
Courier Sport takes a look at the areas Sellars and his team may be asked to scout for.
Striker
There’s no hiding it, Arbroath need a goal-getter. Eight goals in 13 games speaks for itself.
Dick Campbell has turned to forward Dale Hilson to find the net more than any other this season.
But for all his effort, the former Dundee United kid is not an out-and-out scorer. The 29-year-old has netted four Championship goals in three seasons.
Campbell has also taken a chance and put new boy Daniel Fosu up front, despite being an attacking midfielder. That has not borne any fruit either.
Fellow midfielder Michael McKenna was last season’s top scorer, but he had strikers who were able to hold the ball up for him to get the goals.
This season he has also been played up top and out of position and hasn’t been as effective, while the two strikers signed in the summer, Kieran Shanks and Kareem Isiaka, can’t seem to get a game.
Arbroath were dealt a deadline day blow with two loan strikers from England opting to stay down south. Had they travelled north of the border, things could have been very different.
There is still the option of free agents to bring in immediately, but the recruitment team will likely be putting their ducks in a row for January.
Left winger
Arbroath’s main man this season is, undoubtedly, Bobby Linn.
The veteran winger is the club’s top scorer with five goals in all competitions and is the source of danger for the Lichties.
However, at 37-years-old, Linn can’t be relied upon to play every minute of every game.
Deri Corfe has been Campbell’s most common substitute to replace the Lichties’ hero, while Mason Hancock has also been used.
Both can play in the left-wing role but neither have offered much going forward.
Hilson could operate on the left, as could David Gold or Scott Stewart, but that could be solving one problem while creating another on the right.
Another attacking option on the left is required.
Centre-back
For the past few seasons, Arbroath were able to rely on the same back four; Jason Thomson, Ricky Little, Tam O’Brien and Colin Hamilton.
The disruption to that defensive line is, arguably, one of the reasons for their poor start to the season.
Thomson has departed while the remaining three have each picked up knocks with O’Brien also having suspensions to deal with.
Only Little has started every one of the Lichties league games.
These absences have meant other areas of the team have had to suffer – with even right midfielder Stewart having to plug a gap at centre back.
Loan signings in Marcel Oakley and Scott Bitsindou have been real positives. But with the latter picking up a knock last weekend while standing in for O’Brien, it could stretch the side once more.
It’s probably the least pressing of issues but extra defensive cover would be welcome.
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