Albion Rovers boss Brian Reid won’t close the door on forward Euan East after he snubbed a new deal to search for full-time football.
The attacker was one of the standouts last season for Rovers’ netting eight times during the curtailed campaign.
However, with a deadline of the end of July set by Reid to accept a new contract, East has now left the club.
The gaffer revealed the 20-year-old had turned down the offer as he aims to swap League Two for a full-time opportunity.
“We made Euan an offer to stay at the club but he chose to hold off,” said Reid. “And good luck to him, it’s going to be tough to try and find a full-time club at the moment given the impact of Covid, but he might end up at full-time.
“He might end up looking for a new club and coming back to part-time. I wouldn’t shut the door on him coming back here completely, but if he turns down a deal we have to look at other options.
“It’s the gamble that a lot of players are taking this summer, to see if they can get a full-time deal.
“For me, Euan is a good young player who would have fit what we are trying to achieve here. We believe we could have developed him, but ultimately it’s up to him, so I was a bit disappointed.
“I spoke to him throughout the summer and it’s fair enough if he wants to go and see what’s out there.
“I just can’t promise we will have the money in the pot if he comes back to us at the end of the summer.”
Having added Matthew Aitken from Forfar and Callum Wilson from Dumbarton, Reid is still keen to add up to three new faces to his squad.
He continued: “We are looking to run with a squad of about 15 outfield players.
“We have a small budget and it’s going to be important to rely on our reserve side this season.
“I’ve got space for around three players in the squad and hopefully we can add some more in the next week or so.
“We will be aiming to start pre-season back at the end of August, so we might get a couple of guys in on trial to have a look at as well.”
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