Ross County manager Jim McIntyre will not offer a contract to Croatian attacker Andrej Keric.
The 29-year-old trained with the Staggies in recent weeks, with the attacker coming on as a second-half substitute during the Dingwall side’s 2-0 defeat to Dutch Eredivisie outfit NEC Nijmegen in pre-season.
But the former Croatia under-21 international, who previously played for Czech sides Sparta Prague and Slovan Liberec, has not convinced McIntyre who said: “We’ve decided not to offer Andrej anything. But nothing changes, we are still looking for a forward.”
County began their Premiership campaign in defeat on Saturday, going down 2-0 against champions Celtic at Parkhead.
The task looked ominous for the Staggies after they went a goal behind just four minutes in, courtesy of Leigh Griffiths’ penalty which followed Andrew Davies’ foul on the Celtic attacker.
However McIntyre praised the spirit his side showed and hopes County can claim their first points of the season at home to Hamilton Accies on Saturday.
McIntyre added: “The players showed me a great reaction. We never crumbled after going a goal behind so early. We showed great character which I have seen since day one of pre-season.
“I wasn’t surprised by that. I knew we had signed good players. We took the positives from the Celtic match, albeit not the result.”
McIntyre has already made 12 signings this summer, and is pleased with the competition within a much-changed squad.
Among County’s substitutes on Saturday were last season’s leading-scorer Liam Boyce, March’s Premiership player of the month Raffaele De Vita, as well as former Dundee United and St Johnstone attacker Brian Graham.
McIntyre claimed no player is guaranteed a start and added: “If the team is playing well then nine times out of 10 they will keep the jersey.
“There will, of course, be games when we freshen things up but that depends on factors such as how many games we have in a month.
“It’s up to the players picked to keep their jerseys and up to the other players to earn a place. That’s what we wanted.
“We didn’t have that last year. For most of the positions it was pretty nailed on they would be playing, albeit we were on a great run late in the season.
“Now we have far more individual challenges and that’s exactly what I want as a manager. I wanted to make our squad stronger, and I feel we have done that but we’ve got to prove it.”