East Fife are hopeful of significantly strengthening their squad before this weekend’s league match with Stranraer at Stair Park.
The Methil club have remained tight-lipped on potential targets but were last night hoping to complete moves for two players, while talks with at least two more are said to have gone well.
The Fifers have seen four players depart in the last couple of weeks, with Alexis Dutot, Cedric Tuta and Jack Smith all leaving before midfielder Stephen Hughes decided on Monday that his future lay with Dundee.
Boss Gary Naysmith is hopeful that a deal to extend Kilmarnock midfielder Gary Fisher’s loan spell at the club will be completed this week and is working tirelessly to bring new faces in.
“What we’ve found is the type of player we’re trying to bring is maybe from a Premier club and although we’re offering as good a deal financially as clubs in the Championship, lads are wanting to stay full-time so you’ve got that against you.
“What we’re also finding is that because of the money that we can pay you are very limited in terms of where players live.
“If you go past Airdrie you don’t find many players who are wanting to travel for the sort of money we can pay players at East Fife, so you are in a very limited market.
“It wasn’t something I was really aware of when I got the job and I’m finding out now that it’s quite difficult to get players in. But we’re actively trying because we need to get a few players in.”
It has emerged that the Fifers made Hughes a contract offer three or four weeks ago in the knowledge that his short-term deal was up after the Rangers game, although the midfielder rejected that in favour of a move to Dundee this week.
“Financially it was a really, really good offer from East Fife but he was itching to get back to full-time football and you can’t blame people for that,” said Naysmith.
“I think we were fortunate to get Stephen here in the first place. We’ve got to thank him and he’s been a big, big influence on the young lads.
Home tickets for the derby with Dunfermline on February 1 have gone on sale from Bayview.