County set to finalise Doohan deal
ROSS COUNTY boss Stuart Kettlewell has confirmed he has finally been given the green light to complete the signing of Celtic goalkeeper Ross Doohan.
The 22-year-old featured for the Staggies in a friendly clash with his parent club on Sunday but was told he would have to to wait for Neil Lennon to sign a replacement for Fraser Forster before he could make his own one-year loan move to Dingwall.
And permission has now been granted after the Parkgead club completed the £4.5million signing of AEK Athens stopper Vasilis Barkas.
Doohan still has to complete the formalities but Kettlewell is confident the Scotland Under21 international will be in his side to face Motherwell in his side’s Scottish Premiership opener on Monday.
Kettlewell said: “The agreement is there in principle. Ross is travelling up just now for a medical and I’d be pretty confident we’d have him on the training pitch tomorrow.
“It’s been a slight frustration as we’d liked to have got him in before and I’m sure Celtic will tell you they’d like to have had business done a couple of weeks earlier too.
“It’s just been one of those domino chains where we knew once Celtic got a new goalkeeper in, Ross would come up to us. We’ve been patient because it’s important we give ourselves good options in every area.”
Meanwhile, Stephen Robinson has added all the new signings he wanted ahead of the new season but the Motherwell boss is braced for less welcome transfer business.
Robinson completed his preseason rebuilding job this week by signing Wigan forward Callum Lang on loan to join Nathan McGinley, Scott Fox, Ricki Lamie, Jordan White and Jake Hastie as summer arrivals.
The Fir Park boss also secured the return of Mark O’Hara following a loan spell and re-signed last season’s joint top goalscorer,
Long.
However, with David Turnbull back fit following the knee surgery which scuppered his £3million move to Celtic, and the likes of Allan Campbell, Declan Gallagher, Liam Donnelly and Liam Polworth having impressed in Motherwell’s third-place finish last season, Robinson is prepared for interest in his players.
“I believe we are done unless… the worry for me is the transfer window is open now until October,” he said.
“So with England shutting down for a little while, there is always the fear that English teams come in after watching games early on.
“So we are prepared for that but I have strengthened us in lots of areas. Whatever midfield I put out I believe will be a really strong midfield, which gives me a headache in itself but a good headache.
“We are prepared for people leaving the football club rather than bringing anybody else in.”
Motherwell sold James Scott to Hull in the final minutes of the winter transfer window so Robinson is well aware he may lose another player late on.
“It would be difficult but I have been Motherwell manager for quite a while now and it’s part of the job,” he said. “Anyone that plays for Motherwell is for sale, that’s the reality of the job.
“You won’t hear me complaining about it, frustrating as it is of course when you lose people at the last minute and maybe don’t get the chance to replace them.”
Christopher