Published: Thursday, 26th June, 2008 12:05
Pars boss in talks with signings targets
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PARS boss Jim McIntyre has admitted he’s interested in signing striker Graham Bayne and ex-Rangers goalkeeper Calum Reidford but insisted there would be no panic buys at East End this summer.
Austin McCann and Graeme Holmes were the only new boys among the Pars squad who returned for pre-season training at Pitreavie yesterday (Wednesday).
Fellow new recruit Steven Bell was seeing a specialist yesterday and could be out for up to six weeks after damaging his knee while training over the summer break.
While McIntyre admitted he would have liked to have had all his summer targets signed and sealed in time for the start of pre-season training, he said he was also willing to be patient to sign the right players.
New strikers remain top of his wanted list and there could be more new faces in the 18-man squad who will jet out to a training camp in Austria at the end of next week.
McIntyre is likely to use the trip to run the rule over trialists, one of which will almost certainly be highly-rated keeper Reidford, who was released by Rangers at the end of last season.
“We will speak to Calum Reidford on Saturday and there’s a possibility of taking him to Austria for a look,” McIntyre told Press Sport.
“He has been well recommended and obviously we need another back-up to Paul (Gallacher).
“Graham Bayne is someone I am interested in. We are in talks with Inverness. He’s a player I admire but at the end of the day he’s under contract with Inverness and we just need to wait and see what happens on that one.
“I won’t sign players to make up the numbers, it needs to be a player I want and if I have to wait then so be it. It’s just a case of being patient.
"There’s loads of players who want to come to play for Dunfermline but they might not fit into my plans.”
McIntyre said the club had explored the possibility of bringing in players on loan but that it wasn’t straightforward.
“We have looked at all avenues and we have covered a lot of bases but there’s a lot of questions if you go down the route of trying to bring in loan players,” he explained.
“If you’re wanting to bring in a player on loan from a team in a higher league, a lot of them are not back yet, they don’t start pre-season until 7th/8th July and they’ll want to have a look at all their players and then make a decision maybe two or three weeks after that.
“I’d be exactly the same as a manager if lower league clubs wanted to take any of my young boys on loan, I’d want to see how they were in pre-season training first. That’s the kind of predicament you are in if you want to bring in loan players.
“It’s a waiting game and it’s very quiet at the minute but there’s no need to panic, the season doesn’t start for a few weeks.”
Fresh from having led the players through a gruelling morning training session, McIntyre admitted it was “great to be back” ahead of his first full season in management.
“It’s been nine weeks which is as long a period of time we’ve had off as I can remember,” he said.
“What with one thing and another it’s been four, or a maximum of six, weeks for the last however many years.
“It’s nice to recharge the batteries and get away on holiday but I’ve been itching to get back for the last couple of weeks.
“The ambition is promotion, most definitely promotion. I think we have got players here that can definitely achieve that.
“We know how difficult a league it is and I’m not going to say we’re going to do this or that because that would be foolish.
“We’ve seen how well teams in the league, like St Johnstone and Queen of the South, did last year in the cups and they have all strengthened since then.
“We are under no illusions, it’s as strong a league as it’s been in a long, long time and it’s vital we get off to a good start.
“There’s no doubt we need to add faces but that’s why we will not just sign players for the sake of it.”
McIntyre admitted Bell’s injury was a “real blow”.
He told Press Sport, “He will be out for four to six weeks and it’s a real blow not just for us but for the boy.
“He was being a good professional and looking after himself but a lump came out on his knee and we reckon it’s a cartilage tear.”
Sol Bamba will not rejoin the Pars until after the Olympics, where he will be on international duty with the Ivory Coast.
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