Oran Kearney feels Ballymena United 'nearly have too many players' with January exits likely
Oran Kearney believes Ballymena United “nearly have too many players” and anticipates a number of January exits as he trims down his squad.
The Sky Blues have dipped into the transfer market this month with Igor Rutkowski, Dean Ebbe, Sean Murray and Bradley Wade, who made his debut in Saturday’s 2-0 Premiership defeat to Dungannon Swifts, all arriving at The Showgrounds.
Former Coleraine midfielder Josh Carson departed for Portadown while Sean O’Neill has taken up a senior coaching role at Crusaders following his retirement, but Kearney is still left with a variety of options across positions.
With “seven or eight players” not included in his squad for their weekend trip to Co Tyrone, Kearney predicts outgoings are more likely than any new stars arriving – but he’s still assessing the market incase the right opportunity comes up.
"We've utilised it (transfer market) a bit, but we nearly have too many players,” he said. "We're probably too big a number, ideally we need to lose a few before the window closes.
"But one thing that never changes when a window's open, I'm always looking for players, and you'll always try and improve, but it's got to be something that can improve you.
"I think with our team at the minute, it can't be a project, it can't be someone that hasn't played in six months, it can't be someone that's been injured.
"It nearly needs to be somebody from within the league who's played 25 games this season who can just come in and be an immediate fix because we just are littered with all the other type.
"That's my observation of coming in, and that's where I just feel it's very tough, because it's mid-season, and the most important thing is trying to win games of football, but it's trying to juggle all of these other bits and pieces as well that make it tricky.”
Since taking over from Jim Ervin, ex-Coleraine chief Kearney has picked up one win from six Premiership matches – a memorable Boxing Day triumph over his former club.
With players returning from injury, Kearney is looking to utilise his squad in the best way possible amidst a busy fixture schedule with Ballymena back in action again on Tuesday night in the Irish Cup against Larne.
"We just have so many games where we're Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, so you're literally doing a bit of recovery on a Thursday night and you're into games,” he added. "Our pitch is like a dog's dinner, here (Stangmore Park) it's brilliant.
"You go back to our pitch on Tuesday night, it's different squads, different formations, it's just a range of different things.
"We just have far too many differing stories for different reasons. The most honest and best way I can describe that is Andy Scott.
"I thought Andy Scott was one of our better players today, but I had no choice to take him off after 60 minutes because Andy has been out for eight months.
"His first training session was the first night that I arrived at Ballymena. I need Andy to be available for the next Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday.
"I know that if I play Andy for 90 today, I can't use him on Tuesday night, or even at that I run the risk that he picks up a muscle injury, you get him injured again.
"We're not Saturday to Saturday, which then impacts on that as well, where you're making decisions, not necessarily football decisions, you're just making decisions based on what you have available.”