Playing Squad Update

The ‘Loons’ management team of Jim Weir and Gavin Price are already hard at work re-building their squad for next season. Since the last ball was kicked in anger on Saturday past they have been in contact with a myriad of potential signings and hopefully some exciting news will be available for publication soon.

To make way for new faces Jim has announced that five of the current squad will be leaving the club, namely Declan Byrne, Russell McLean, Blair Malcolm, Finn Robson and Mitch Taylor.

The longest serving of the quintet is Finn who first joined the club on loan from Dundee United during the second half of the 2022/23 season. Then on his release by the Tannadice club in the summer of 2023 he moved on a permanent basis to the ‘Loons.’ The midfielder has subsequently racked up 82 starting appearances in a Sky Blue shirt as well as 10 from the bench, but found a starting berth difficult to secure in the latter part of the season just ended.

The club’s top scorer this past season Russell McLean is also not being offered a new deal by the club. ‘Rusty’ in fact had a short spell on loan at Station Park back in 2019, but signed an 18 month contract back in January of last year following his release by Edinburgh City. The striker made a total of 36 starting appearances for the club plus 16 from the bench. This past season he netted 11 goals including remarkably two successive hat-tricks in the cup tie v Stirling Albion and the league fixture two weeks later against Bonnyrigg Rose.

Blair Malcolm and Mitch Taylor were both signed by Ray McKinnon in the early part of last summer, Blair from Dumbarton and Mitch from Elgin City. Both were fairly regular starters in the first half of the campaign, but in a similar vein both struggled since the start of the year to hold down a starting berth. Mitch in fact eventually moved out on a temporary transfer to neighbours Brechin City where he made an impact and became a fans favourite. Blair eventually made 25 starting appearances for the Athies with 7 further from the bench, Mitch 19 starts and six as a sub.

Declan Byrne a free agent at the time was a spring signing by Jim on a short term deal in an attempt to bolster the scoring options in the dying embers of the campaign. Disappointingly injury in the main restricted his starting appearances to one with a handful off the bench, the striker notching one goal along the way.

All five players leave the club naturally with thanks for their efforts throughout their time at Station Park and with best wishes for the future.

The ‘Loons’ of course have six players currently contracted for next season, skipper Stuart Morrison, Marc McCallum, Nathan Cannon, Ross Maclean, Craig Slater and Josh Skelly and we look forward to seeing them in action next term.

Discussions have also been opened up with the remaining eight players whose contracts expire in early June and further developments will be communicated to the Forfar Athletic fan base when they occur on our social media channels.