Callum Davidson will make sure St Johnstone put the deadline day double departure behind them.
There will be no lingering negativity at McDiarmid Park in the wake of star men Jason Kerr and Ali McCann getting their big money moves to England, the Perth boss insisted.
With plans in place to give his team a bit of a refresh after the international break, Davidson has another successful season in his sights.
“It’s important now that we refocus,” he said.
“The players are disappointed to lose Ali and Jason, the fans are and so am I.
“But it’s about the team. It always has been here.
“Ali was a major player who could play a couple of positions for me. So we might change our style a bit. I’ll look at the team and assess it all.
“That’s what you need to do as a manager. I’m a positive person and I still see exciting times ahead.
“We’ve got more good young players coming through and we’ve signed good players as well.
“There’s a lot to look forward to.”
Hayden Muller has already shown he has the athletic and ball-playing attributes to be a success with Saints this season and, as such, looks a natural replacement for Kerr.
And young Brighton centre-back Lars Dendoncker hasn’t moved north to be a squad player.
🆕🔵⚪️ | We are thrilled to announce the season-long loan signing of Cammy MacPherson from St Mirren!
Welcome, Cammy 🙌#SJFC
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) August 31, 2021
“Lars is a big, strong, young lad with a good pedigree,” said Davidson.
“He’s here to compete for a starting place.
“I’ve been really pleased with Hayden and it’s about us finding the right balance at the back.
“They’re fighting to replace Jason.
“Lars will be trying to do that and we’ve also got Shaun who can play on the right side of a three. We still look very strong in there.”
Too many loans
The signed player to loan player balance in the McDiarmid squad isn’t as Davidson would choose it at the moment.
Addressing that will be a priority.
“We’ll be hoping to make a couple of loan deals permanent but the priority was making sure we got players in in time,” he said.
“The worst scenario would have been losing Ali and not getting Cammy (MacPherson) in.
“I’ve spoken to the chairman about getting players tied up and already start planning for January and pre-contracts.
“I’ve always said I don’t like too many loans players in my team.
“But we’ve had to do it a bit differently this time. Hopefully we’ll get players tied up soon.”
