Can 'significant' Ndaba sale be template for Killie?

BBC News

29-07-2025

Stuart Kettlewell aims to develop a "conveyor belt" of talent at Kilmarnock after Corrie Ndaba's departure to Serie A side Lecce for a "significant" fee.The 25-year-old left-back signed a three-year deal at Rugby Park last summer after impressing on loan but manager Kettlewell says the plan for Ndaba was always to move on."We definitely have to look to bring in another one or two just to gain that balance to our squad," he told Sky Sports."With regards to Corrie, I only worked with him for a short period of time but he's a lad I really like as a person first and foremost and a really talented player. A big part of why you come here is you know we are a selling club. There's no hiding from that."We always want to get the best value for players but it's been a huge part of my remit in my previous two clubs as a manager and it'll be a part of what we want to do here."We want to develop players, ideally our own, but you know in somebody like Ndaba there's been a plan there that he comes here, he does well and the potential of that sell on and what people need to realise is that sale was significant."The number and the price towards the football club is significant. I've never been a doom and gloom guy with those types of scenarios. Of course you want to work with the best players but we need to try and create that conveyor belt."If we lose any players for significant value for the football club then we have to ensure that we try and replace them and we try and go through that process again and again and again and there's been a lot of positives in terms of players showing up well so far for us. We look to continue now."