Young boys have hunger to succeed — Clark

KILMARNOCK manager Lee Clark believes the ages of his new signings are irrelevant as the club unveiled 11 additions.

Killie last week confirmed the arrival of six new players plus five loan signings, the oldest of whom, Callum McFadzean, is aged 22.

All 11 have come up from English clubs but Clark is confident their desire to succeed will outweigh any lack of experience.

Clark said: “I was just looking for good players and these lads are good players. Good characters as well.

“As I have always said, birth certificates don’t worry us. I enjoy working with young players but, if there were older ones on the market who I felt were going to make us better, I would have gone for them.

“These lads have shown a real hunger, desire and willingness to come to the club.

“We have looked at some of them very, very closely since I have been at the club, some have trained with us for two or three weeks before we made the decisions and some I have worked with before, others I haven’t, but I have kept a close eye on them.

“I know what they can bring and the main thing for me was they signed very early in the window, which showed a willingness on their part to come to this football club.”

Clark’s transfer activity is now on hold as he looks to get four more players off the books following 12 earlier exits. Kallum Higginbotham, Dale Carrick, Conrad Balatoni and Tope Obadeyi, who looks set to join Dundee United, were all asked to find new clubs despite being under contract.

“I have to balance the books,” Clark said. “We still have four players on the transfer list.

“We are just waiting. Their agents I imagine are working very hard to get some clubs interested in them and see if we can strike a deal financially.”