St Johnstone manager Craig Levein is happy with the progress the Perth club are making in the transfer market.
But the plan is to keep a couple of slots free deep into August so he’s ready to take advantage of “late bargains”.
“We’ve been shopping in a lot of different markets because we don’t have the money to compete with some of the teams who are around us,” said Levein, who made loan recruit, Lewis Neilson, his 10th summer signing.
“We’ve been looking for players who won’t cost as much but are every bit as good.
“It’s been a challenge and we’ve had to be creative with a few of the signings.
“But I don’t think we’re a million miles away.
“Every day I’m speaking to people about different things – what options are there and what’s possible.
“We’re quite far down the road because we’ve brought a few players in – we’ve changed the back line a fair bit.
“We haven’t done a huge amount in the middle of the park but have done a bit up top.
“There’s still four weeks of the window to go and loans are usually left parked until later on.
“You generally have to wait for there being movement elsewhere and other people making their minds up on players.
“I always like to leave a space or two until late on because there’s always the chance you’ll get a bargain.”
No chat with St Johnstone goalie
Even though Josh Rae has made a couple of mistakes that have led to goals in Saints’ final two Premier Sports Cup group matches, Levein isn’t rushing into signing another goalkeeper.
“I haven’t spoken to Josh about it,” he said.
“People make mistakes. It happens all the time in football.
“I’m not thinking that because he’s made a couple of errors I need to go and have a conversation with him.
“It’s better to leave him and let him find his way.
“I still have to decide whether we need an experienced goalkeeper.
“I think Ross Sinclair is at the stage where he needs to go out and play.
“It’s unfair on him to keep him here because he’s been out for a long time and needs to be getting regular football.
“He’s lost a lot of his career to injury so game-time is what he needs at this stage.
“We will have to see what we’re going to do.
“As we get closer to the end of the transfer window, it’s something I need to take a real look at.
“Obviously signing a 30-year-old keeper who has played a load of games at a higher level than we are at would be ideal but it’s not going to be easy to find one of those on what we have left in the budget.
“So we’ll just have to see what’s out there and what happens with it.”
Courier Sport understands that Partick Thistle are among the clubs contemplating a loan move for Sinclair.
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