When St Johnstone boss, Simo Valakari, concluded his January transfer window business, he matched the eight signings Callum Davidson made three years ago.
As is the case now, Saints were in real threat of being relegated from the Premiership in 2022 and needed a significant mid-season rebuild.
The task in front of the Finn is even greater, given the points gap between the bottom of the table Perth side and 11th place, making the margin for error in the transfer market much smaller.
Courier Sport looks back at the impact the Davidson January recruits, assesses how their careers have subsequently panned out and finds out where they all are now.
Dan Cleary
The Irishman was signed from Dundalk with the hope he would fill Jason Kerr’s big shoes better than the likes of Lars Dendoncker, Hayden Muller and Efe Ambrose.
He was undoubtedly an improvement on those three, and Davidson would have been happy to keep him for the following campaign had it not been for family reasons pulling the ex-Liverpool centre-half back to Dublin.
Cleary has since been a regular with Shamrock Rovers, where he has won several trophies and competed in Europe.
Tony Gallacher
Another player who was developed in the Liverpool academy (in this case after starting out with Falkirk), the left-back replaced Reece Devine, whose loan from Manchester United was cut short.
Injuries hampered Gallacher in his first season-and-and-a-half but he played 22 times in 2023/24 and scored a crucial winner against Hibs at Easter Road.
Released in the summer, it wasn’t until recently that he picked up another club, Hamilton Accies. He has yet to feature – could he make his debut against Saints on Saturday?
Nadir Ciftci
The most high profile of the January eight and probably the biggest gamble, the former Celtic and Dundee United striker was well known to Saints fans from the 2014 cup-winning season.
It was a gamble that unequivocally didn’t pay off.
Ciftci played well on his debut at Tynecastle, but subsequently contributed next to nothing to the Perth cause, failing to score even once.
There were no suggestions of huffs or tantrums, however he was a shadow of the player who became a cult hero at Tannadice.
Since leaving Scotland (surely for the last time), Ciftci has played for four clubs in Greece and Turkey, the most recent being Inegolspor (his 18th employer).
He hasn’t played competitive football in well over half a year.
John Mahon
The Sligo Rovers centre-back was bought on the weekend of Saints’ catastrophic Scottish Cup loss at Kelty.
Unlike fellow Irishman, Cleary, Mahon was unable to hit the ground running and didn’t start a match until the dead rubber against Hibs on the final day of the season.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man, however.
And, with Jamie McCart sidelined as a result of a head injury in the first leg of the play-off against Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Mahon performed superbly in the second leg victory to help keep Saints in the top-flight.
By all accounts, he struggled to settle in Scotland.
After Mahon underwhelmed in League Cup group games, a deal was agreed to terminate his contract.
He returned to Sligo but a ruptured Achilles wiped out virtually all of last season.
Melker Hallberg
Davidson had to play the waiting game to get the Swede.
He was signed towards the end of the window and became one of the club’s highest earners.
Did he justify that expenditure? Probably not. But he scored in the first leg of the play-off final, was a regular starter for that half-season and then the subsequent full one.
It would have taken a serious wage cut to make a contract extension affordable for Steven MacLean once the playing budget was cut in the summer of 2023, and to nobody’s surprise, Hallberg returned home to Sweden.
With Kalmar, he has twice played against Jonathan Svedberg, now a Perth player.
Svedberg scored the equaliser the last time they were up against each other.
Kalmar were relegated last season but Hallberg has committed his future to them until 2028.
Theo Bair
In hindsight, a loan to the Championship on arrival from Vancouver would have been best for player and club.
By the time Saints ripped up his contract in the summer of 2023, nobody would have predicted the stunning form he would produce in Motherwell colours.
Thankfully from a Perth perspective, failing to score from the penalty spot against his old club on the last day of the season proved to be a pivotal moment in Saints’ finishing above Ross County and staying up.
Bair got back in the Canada squad and earned a big-money move to Auxerre on the back of his 15-goal season, but in his 18 appearances has only found the net once in France.
Tom Sang
There was a bit of confusion as to Sang’s best position when he arrived on loan from Cardiff City.
The manager of his parent club, Steve Morison, felt it was central midfield but Davidson and the player himself thought it was right wing-back.
With Shaun Rooney injured, Sang started a few games on that flank but, after being sidelined himself, couldn’t keep the cup double hero out of the starting line-up for the vast majority of the run-in and didn’t feature in the play-off.
To his credit, he played 11 times for Cardiff in the Championship and FA Cup the following season and has been a League One regular for two years at Port Vale (getting red carded twice in the last four games).
Jahmal Hector-Ingram
A former England youth team striker, Hector-Ingram had solid academy credentials, having progressed through the development system at West Ham United and then Derby County.
Saints picked him up as a free agent on deadline day but he was never seen in first team action.
Hector-Ingram has had to drop all the way down to the Southern Counties East League Division One to find his level, where he is currently playing for Sheppey Sports in Kent.
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