Caley Thistle manager John Robertson says strengthening the attacking areas of his squad is his main priority during this month’s transfer window.
Robertson is determined to add further reinforcements to his squad during January, having already secured former Hearts and Kilmarnock left back Kevin McHattie on a deal until the end of the season.
The Caley Jags boss is now looking further up the field in his efforts to add more depth to his squad, with the Highlanders looking to bounce back from successive defeats against Ross County and Queen of the South when they host second-placed Ayr United on Saturday.
Robertson said: “We managed to work the budget in a way where we’ve still got a wee bit of money left to bring in a player or two if possible.
“We are looking to bring in an attacking midfielder or wide man, and a striker, but they are virtually impossible to get. It’s January – who is going to let a striker scoring a lot of goals go?
“If there is somebody out of favour, that would probably involve a transfer fee which we are not in the position to do.
“January is very difficult to get a lot of business done, unless somebody is getting released from another club or other clubs want players off the wage bill.
“You may be lucky – we got Nathan Austin and Coll Donaldson last year under the same circumstances.
“You’ve got to find people who may not fit elsewhere, and see if they fit what we want. We know what we are after.
“We are hopeful of bringing in two, possibly three if we can, and we are still going to look for our younger players to push on.
“We have made a few inquiries about players, possibly on loan, although it’s still increasingly difficult to even get loan players to come up here.”
Robertson, who returned to Caledonian Stadium for a second spell in charge following the club’s relegation from the Premiership 2017, insists he is constantly looking at ways in which he can keep his squad challenging at the top end of the table.
Inverness’ 2-1 loss to Queens on Saturday saw them miss the opportunity to cut the 13-point gap below leaders Ross County, dropping to sixth in the table, with Robertson adding: “We are trying to improve all the time to make the squad better. The great example is going back to Steve Paterson’s team. It took him four years to get a squad in place that was challenging at the top end of the table, and in the fifth year he had them top before he moved on to Aberdeen. We want to try and do that quicker.
“It has been well monitored, the cuts we’ve had to make, whilst at keeping the team competitive as well. We feel we have done that.”