Oran Kearney looking to close gap on full-time teams by adding 'star quality' to his ranks at the Coleraine Showgrounds

Kearney has already delved into the transfer market by bringing in Graham Kelly following the expiry of his contract at Larne, with James McLaughlin and Caiolan Brennan both being released.

However, the former St Mirren boss was quick to point out that potential arrivals on the Ballycastle Road have to improve the squad that’s already at his disposal.

"For me it's about signing the best we can go for,” he said.

"We are limited in some ways and unlimited in others where some of the full-time players are out of reach in terms of accommodation which we can't do.

"We have to be bespoke in what we go after but we need star quality and we need to try and make sure that what we bring in is better than what we've got and it really pushes the changing room.

"I don't think we need a huge amount of players this summer but hopefully for the four or five that we bring in, I want them all to be ideally better than the eleven players who played the most football for us last season.

"If I could bring in five players that are all on similar par or could be possibly better than five out of our 11 starters who played the most games, then surely that's going to raise the bar and the quality of the changing room, as well as the competition within that.

"It's tough and it's not easy.

"It's bespoke what we're looking for to get that star quality but Graham is one of those players that will absolutely bring a new and stronger dimension to us.”

Kearney – who has lifted the Irish Cup and League Cup during his two spells in charge – is hoping that improvements off the pitch in terms of a new pitch and upgraded facilities off the pitch can be rewarded when his players cross the white line on a match day.

Despite posting a better points tally total than the 2020/21 campaign last season, Coleraine finished sixth for a second successive year and Kearney remarked that he is on the lookout for ‘quality’ arrivals at The Showgrounds to help climb the table.

"I'm very stats driven and I try to stay very objective with how we analyse and look at things,” he continued.

"That's like the league table, goals for and goals against and that can tell you the majority of the tale of what you want to see.

"I'm quite clear moving forward, we had a massive transition last summer, we were worried how we would come through that transition but we've ended up 11 points better off than the season before.

"I still feel we've probably let slip some wasteful points throughout the season, particularly in that early six or eight game spell at the start of the year when we were finding our feet and refinding our identity again.

"Those points cost us a possibly better haul.

"We're by no means a finished article.

"Ideally a good four, possibly five players of as top end quality as we can get will be a real shot in the arm to everybody moving into next season.

"There's been a mountain of work that's been done at all levels of the club over the last few seasons and the infrastructure has greatly improved in relation to changing room, pitch and gym.

"There's been so much work that's gone on behind the scenes to raise the bar for the players on that side but now what we've got to do is go and match that and up the ante again to try and close that gap on those full-time teams.”