Dundee boss Gary Bowyer provides striker search update

Dundee boss Gary Bowyer has warned fans they may need to be patient during the club’s search for a new striker.

The Dens Park gaffer revealed at the start of this week a new frontman was at the top of his transfer wishlist ahead of the league season kicking off.

In recent matches against Stranraer and Queen’s Park the Dark Blues have been short of options up front.

Alex Jakubiak started both matches and has been in fine goalscoring form but with Zak Rudden out with illness and Cillian Sheridan still recovering from long-term injury alternatives have been in short supply.

‘Join the queue!’

Finding another striking option, however, is easier said than done.

“It’s proving difficult,” Bowyer told the Courier.

“Speaking to other managers in Scotland, we are all saying the same thing. Speaking to managers in England, all saying the same thing.

“I got a call from a club in Ireland looking for a striker – it’s not just join the queue, it’s join the rest of Europe!

“It’s hard work at the moment, it really is.

“But I’m loathe to just sign anyone for the sake of signing someone and it not working, causing us more heartache than it needs to.

“We’re looking in the loan market, free transfer market, there have been a couple thrown at me where there might be a small fee and I’d have to go cap in hand to the boss to see if we could do that.

“We’re looking in every market.”

More new faces?

A new striker may not be the limit of Dundee’s transfer dealings this summer, however.

Zak Rudden and Lee Ashcroft run before the match #thedee pic.twitter.com/gWFiPF1Wfc

— Dundee Football Club (@DundeeFC) July 19, 2022

Bowyer is fairly happy with the squad at his disposal but admits if the right deal for the right player popped up, he’d make a move.

He is, though, wary of denying some of the club’s youngsters more chances in the first team.

“There are one or two other positions where we feel if the right one came around, we’d do something,” Bowyer added.

“But with the progress that Lee Ashcroft is making and how well Sam Fisher has done and Jack Wilkie, you have to be careful you don’t block pathways at the same time.”