St Johnstone defender Wallace Duffy is a transfer target for Championship side Morton and League One new boys Cove Rangers.
The 21-year-old has been an unused substitute in the six games played this season under new Saints manager Callum Davidson.
His lack of game time at McDiarmid Park has alerted clubs outside the Premiership, with ‘Ton boss David Hopkin and Cove gaffer Paul Hartley keen to bring him on board before their campaigns begin next month.
Duffy – capped by Scotland at U-17 and U-19 level – joined St Johnstone last summer following his release from Celtic.
The right-back made 15 appearances under Perth legend Tommy Wright, with his last outing a 3-0 home defeat to his former club in January.
Hartley – whose League Two champions kick off their 2020/21 league season at home to East Fife on October 17 after Betfred Cup games against Hibs and Brora Rangers – this week admitted the transfer market has its challenges amid a surge in the number of free agents.
He said: “It’s not easy. You can try get loans, but you don’t know how long for or if some of the top-flight teams are wanting to hold on to their players for a bit longer.
“You think there’s a lot of players out there, but you need to have players you think can bring something.
“There’s a lot of players out there, but not ones I think are the right ones for us.
“We’re probably not the only club, but we’ve had a lot of players thrown at us.
“Some of them won’t improve our squad – they need to be better than what we’ve got. The two we’ve got in will definitely add to the group.
“There’s not a great deal where you think, ‘Can they help us?’ There are some players that have gone to a higher league where we thought we had a wee chance, so that’s the difficulty.
“But we’re happy with what we’ve got and we’ll be patient. Hopefully we can use the loan market to our advantage – we think Cove is a good sell for clubs to send players here.”
