St Johnstone have never had a season like their last one as far as recruitment is concerned.
Over the course of two transfer windows – and in between – the Perth club brought in a grand total of 17 new players.
Courier Sport assesses them all (ratings out of 10).
Hayden Muller – 4
Snapping up a promising loan defender from the fringes of the Millwall first team served Saints very well the previous year.
There was a sense of anticipation that Muller could make a similar impact to Danny McNamara at McDiarmid Park, albeit in a different position.
The noises coming out of the pre-season training camp were that Saints had a real player on their hands.
When you saw Muller setting up Michael O’Halloran for his goal against Rangers and as a rampaging forward away to St Mirren, he looked the likeliest of the young loan players to make a mark.
📸 | Our angle of Michael O'Halloran's goal on Saturday!#SJFC pic.twitter.com/tbdTKd7uQR
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) September 13, 2021
Conceding a penalty in that Rangers game knocked him back, though.
Too often he wanted one touch too many and the quality of his decision-making deteriorated.
By the time Muller returned to south London in January it all looked too much too soon.
Reece Devine – 4
Manchester United don’t send young players to the Scottish Premiership in the last season of their deals if they think they have a chance of making it at Old Trafford.
But it was still fair to expect Devine to make a Matty Willock-level impact in Perth.
Passion 👊🏻
An impressive competitive debut from Reece Devine yesterday!#SJFC pic.twitter.com/CxX3VE0qEs
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) August 1, 2021
Earning Saints a penalty in the first league game at Dingwall was a promising start but unfortunately it will be his mistake in the build-up to Galatasaray’s equaliser in the first leg of the Europa League qualifier that will be the moment that endures.
Devine made 10 appearances but, as with Muller, his head appeared to have gone by the end of December and back down the road he went.
Eetu Vertainen – 3
There was a feeling in the summer that Saints had the latitude to make a very un-St Johnstone like gamble with their ‘marquee’ signing.
As with Guy Melamed, getting Vertainen onto the pitch proved to be a saga all of its own.
And as with Guy Melamed the word ‘trust’ became a key one for Callum Davidson.
By the time he was given his chance, Saints were a team on the slide and a defeat at Ibrox when Vertainen’s desire to try flicks round the corner rather than hold the ball up certainly wasn’t to his manager’s liking.
Forward Eetu Vertainen bags four goals for Linfield this weekend. pic.twitter.com/SyzYqyZQzJ
— St Johnstone 1884 (@stjohnstone1884) March 21, 2022
Whether a subsequent loan at Linfield will alter the square peg into round hole narrative remains to be seen.
Lars Dendoncker – 4
The Muller and Devine theme can be extended to the Belgian, signed as a deadline day loan from Brighton.
He had a debut to remember in the 3-1 win against Dundee but that was as good as it got.
Dendoncker looked alarmingly out of his depth in the last two games of 2021 against Ross County and Celtic.
Ali Crawford – 6
Initially brought back to Scotland from Bolton on loan, a permanent deal was agreed when David Wotherspoon was ruled out for the season.
You can’t deny that he produced some big moments with goals against Dundee United, Hearts and Livingston hugely significant when the season is reflected upon.
Ali Crawford baby 😍 pic.twitter.com/oK8xNBTQdP
— St Johnstone F.C. News ✯✯ (@sjfcnews) October 31, 2021
The flip-side of the coin was Crawford’s relative anonymity in the long losing streak.
And the fact that his last game – the 1-0 defeat to St Mirren – could well have been his worst doesn’t help his cause going into season number two.
A flying start will be crucial for the ex-Hamilton Accies man but he has fallen down the pecking order of creative players at McDiarmid.
Cammy MacPherson – 6
For some Saints fans, Crawford and MacPherson get lumped together as a pair of McDiarmid misfits.
But if it’s about the last impression of a season rather than the first, the ex-St Mirren midfielder has a significant edge.
Like Crawford, he originally came in on loan.
And like Crawford he had big shoes to fill – Ali McCann’s.
Two shoulder dislocations and groin surgery added up to a season of disrupted rhythm.
However there have been spells of high calibre football (Tynecastle after the mid-season break springs to mind) and his displays in the play-off (not to mention a crucial goal) suggest that he could yet become a top team regular.
Efe Ambrose – 4
Talk about the sublime to the ridiculous.
From making a winning debut at Pittodrie when he didn’t lose a single aerial duel to looking like a Sunday league amateur in a 3-0 home defeat to Livingston a month later (with two victories over Dundee in between) it was never dull with Ambrose in the team.
Not being able to get about the pitch anywhere close to effectively soon became an issue, though.
And despite the fact that Saints’ form fell off a cliff in November and December, Davidson didn’t turn to Ambrose once before he left for Dunfermline.
That doesn’t reflect well on what the manager was seeing from the ex-Celt on the training ground.
Viv Solomon-Otabor – 3
The second of three free agents to be signed by Davidson between the transfer windows, the ex-Wigan forward’s stint in Perth was the shortest.
It was always going to be a big ask to make a telling impression having not played any football for months and so it proved.
In a different way to Vertainen, Solomon-Otabor just didn’t look like a natural fit for a Davidson team.
Jacob Butterfield – 5
If watching warm-ups is your thing, Butterfield would have impressed those getting into the ground early.
He has the touch and snap in his passing that you’d expect of a player who enjoyed a decade-long career in England and came through Manchester United’s academy.
The peak with Saints came when Butterfield helped run the midfield in the game against Aberdeen that sent Dundee down.
More often than not, mobility – or lack of it – proved to be too big a handicap, however.
And, as was the case in the first leg of the play-off, Butterfield struggled to get to the pace of a game off the bench.
Dan Cleary – 7
Dundalk wouldn’t sell their centre-back to Saints in the summer but the Perth club had a deal in place to recruit the former Liverpool academy product when the January window opened.
Dundee away when he was subbed at half-time apart, Cleary acquitted himself well in his first few months in Scottish football.
If he can pick up where he left off – driving forward to set-up Shaun Rooney for the fourth goal against Inverness – he’ll surely get even better next season.
Tony Gallacher – 6
Losing possession at the start of Kelty Hearts’ counter-attack winner in THAT Scottish Cup tie was as far removed from an ideal debut as you can get.
But by the time Gallacher’s season was ended at the start of April through injury, you could see that here was a player with a long-term future at McDiarmid.
You can envisage Davidson mixing and matching Gallacher and Callum Booth next season as he did to such good effect with Scott Tanser and Booth in 21/22.
Nadir Ciftci – 2
What a huge disappointment Ciftci’s signing proved to be.
The former Dundee United cult hero turned out to be a shadow of the player Celtic paid big money for once upon a time.
Davidson gave Ciftci more chances than most Saints supporters thought he was worth and his half-season deal ended with neither a goal nor an assist to his name.
The debut at Tynecastle proved to be both a high water mark as well as a false dawn.
Theo Bair – 4
Saints were trying to both save their season and build for the long-term in the mid-season window.
The signing of Bair from Vancouver Whitecaps fell into the second of those categories.
He certainly has the physique to cope with the demands of the Premiership and it was a big frustration to the Canadian international and his club manager that a minor injury denied him a first start in the last league game at Easter Road after he had looked the part as a sub against Aberdeen.
From the little we’ve seen, the lone striker role with two off him (Davidson’s favoured system) would suit Bair best.
Expect to see him getting a chance in the League Cup group games.
Tom Sang – 6
There was confusion over whether Sang was a central midfielder or a wing-back when he arrived at the end of January – his Cardiff City manager suggesting one and the man himself the other.
Davidson definitely had wide on the right in mind and Sang can be reasonably satisfied with his contribution there.
The cross for Callum Hendry’s goal in Dingwall, the overall performance in the win over Hearts and the impact he made off the bench at Dens speak to that.
He’s not Danny McNamara but he’s better than Reece Devine.
Melker Hallberg – 9
Of all the transfer decisions Davidson made in January – actually, make that the whole season – holding out for Hallberg may well have been the best of them.
The Swede isn’t the box to box central midfielder Saints still need but he’s a classy footballer whose eye for a defence-splitting pass and knack of picking up the right position between midfield and attack have been at the core of Saints’ revival.
The way in which he maneuvered the ball to give himself space to shoot for the second goal in Inverness was glorious – nearly as glorious as his quick feet in front of the East Stand celebrating Saints’ survival.
The Swedish wizard loves it 🧙❤️#SJFC | @spfl pic.twitter.com/EVjrRJkReH
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) May 23, 2022
If this is what the play-off star was capable of in a midfield with obvious flaws, imagine what he’ll be like when it’s strengthened around him.
John Mahon – 7
Much like Bair, the Irish centre-back had to make do with occasional substitute appearances.
But unlike his fellow January recruit, Mahon was fit for the Hibs dead rubber and it was just as well he got that opportunity to start because an injury to Jamie McCart meant he was needed in the play-off second leg.
The former Sligo Rovers star didn’t put a foot wrong – throwing himself into tackles, winning headers and picking a pass astutely.
What a player John Mahon looks too. No nonsense, loves a tackle. Absolutely superb!
— Dave Macdonald🏴 (@hammer_saint) May 24, 2022
Talk about whetting the appetite.
A new-look back-three of Mahon, Gordon and Cleary has real promise.
Jahmal Hector-Ingram – you can’t rate what you don’t see
The free agent striker, released by Derby County, will make it into Perth pub quizzes as the only Davidson signing who didn’t see a single minute of action.
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