Callum Davidson has had to wait a long time to bring Melker Hallberg to St Johnstone.
But the Perth boss is confident his new recruit from Hibs will be worth the wait.
It became an open secret early in the January transfer window that the Swedish international was Davidson’s first-choice target for central midfield.
But he revealed Hallberg, who is in line to start against Aberdeen on Saturday, was on his wish list several months before that.
“We have been after him for a long time,” said Davidson.
“He’s one I wanted before the start of this season so it’s good to finally get it done.
“He’s someone I really like.
“He can play a few positions – deep midfield or as an attacking midfielder.
“He will add energy to us in the middle of the pitch and is a good size as well so he’ll bring a presence.
“He’s a good midfielder with a very good pedigree, a Swedish international, and he’s desperate to play football.
WHAT A SAVE! 👏
Allan McGregor hasn't had much to do but he gets down brilliantly to keep out Melker Hallberg's goal-bound effort! 😲
Watch the closing stages on Sky Sports Football! 📺 pic.twitter.com/g38WzcVdIU
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) December 26, 2020
“Melker knows the game. He’s someone you can tell to do a job and he’s able to do it.
“If it’s sitting deep in midfield or going box-to-box he’s capable of playing different roles in midfield.”
Options at last
Davidson now has several options for what had become a problem position going into the mid-season break.
“We have four of five players in the middle of the park who can do the job now with Charlie Gilmour back from his loan, Cammy MacPherson available again and Jacob Butterfield getting up to speed,” he explained.
“So that is three players as well as Melker we didn’t have not that long ago, so I think when you add that to Murray Davidson, Liam Craig and Ali Crawford we have options now.”
Hallberg, Dan Cleary, Nadir Ciftci, Tony Gallacher and John Mahon have all been brought in, with Crawford and MacPherson’s loan deals turned into permanent contracts.
But Davidson won’t be stopping there.
“We are looking for another striker and hopefully we will have one, if not two new players before the window closes,” he reported.
“The attacking side of it are the difficult ones to do but we need someone to give us a bit more impetus up front.
“We are working hard to get someone through the door.”
There will likely be departures as well – but not until the very end of the window.
“There will probably be one or two who will have to look for other places to go and play,” said Davidson.
“It will be a decision taken last minute. I need to make sure the squad is right and is ready to cope with everything.”
