Ross County have made the most of the financial uncertainty in England’s lower leagues by snapping up Regan Charles-Cook.
The 23-year-old midfielder has moved cross-border on freedom of contract from Gillingham on a two-year-deal.
Gills boss Steve Evans was keen to keep the former Arsenal and Charlton Athletic youngster but couldn’t put a deal on the table until his budget was finalised, after the COVID-19 financial fall-out.
Ross County boss Stuart Kettlewell said: “Regan is a player we are really excited about. He is young, hungry and is looking to really push himself on and these are qualities we are looking for.
“If you look at some of the experience, he has for such a young player, Regan has competed at a good level and we hope he can bring that here.
“The Scottish Premiership will be another step up for him but we will work hard with him to make sure he can achieve at this level.”
Gillingham assistant Paul Raynor confirmed Charles-Cook’s departure to the Highlands.
Raynor said: "We are delighted for Regan.
“We wanted to keep him but we weren’t in a position to actually put numbers to him and give him a concrete offer as such although we would have done at some point in the next few days or next week."He has chosen to ply his trade in Scotland. Good luck to him."
Charles-Cook trained with his County team mates this morning and Kettlewell admitted his new boy fits into his plan or bringing more youth into his new-look squad this summer.
He has already signed Connor Randall, Alex Iacovitti and Stephen Kelly on-loan from Rangers.
Kettlewell explained: “We have tried to take in some younger players this summer with a bit of experience that have that desire to want to push on and we are really happy to get Regan on board, who we feel ticks those boxes.”
