St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright admitted that the timing of Michael O’Halloran’s departure could have been better for the Perth club.
But it wasn’t for the lack of trying that they only managed to bring in one new player on deadline day.
On the £500,000 Saints are understood to have received from Rangers, Wright said: “It’s an excellent bit of business for the club.”
He added: “We said to Michael when he came here that we thought we could improve him and give him a platform to show how good a player he is.
“That’s how we have to sell the club to players because we’re in a different market to some of the other clubs in Scotland.
“Fair play to Michael. He’s done extremely well and been a big part of what we’ve achieved over the last couple of years.
“It’s sad to see him go but football’s a business and it was good business for us.
“Probably in hindsight it would have been better for us if it had been done earlier, but for various reasons that wasn’t the case.
“I’m delighted for him, Rangers have got an exciting player, and we’ll move on.
“Some fans might think we’ve under-valued him but there was only one buyer in the room and it was a Scottish club, not an English Premier League one.
“It keeps getting thrown in our face that Andy Robertson went for £3 million and we only sold Stevie May for £800,000. But Robertson went to a Premier League team the money is different.”
Wright has backed O’Halloran who made his debut in Tuesday night’s match at Raith Rovers to be a success at Ibrox.
“Michael’s a Glasgow boy so he’ll be aware of the huge pressure put on Old Firm players,” the Northern Irishman said.
“He’s 25 so he’s mature enough to deal with that, and I think he will.”
Wright revealed that it wasn’t a case of making a last-day rush for signings on the back of the O’Halloran transfer getting over the line.
He explained: “Like a lot of clubs we had things that broke down early in the month, in the middle of the month and at the last minute.
“I’d have liked more players in but they didn’t happen for a variety of reasons.
“We enquired about Stefan Scougall at Sheffield United and there was a deal for a Rangers player that fell through.
“If anybody was expecting us to splash the cash and spend a huge portion of Michael’s money that was never going to happen.
“The club’s in a good position, the squad’s in a good position and the team’s in a good position in the league. We’ve a lot to play for.”
And Wright is very happy with the one signing he has made – Danny Swanson – and backed him to make an immediate impact.
“We’ve done good business bringing Danny back,” he said. “He was great for us last year and we won’t have the problem of getting him fit this time. He’s ready to go.
“In the window you can get players who are an unknown, but that’s not the case with Danny. There will be no problems with him settling in. He knows the team and how we play. I’m expecting him to hit the ground running.”
Explaining the decision to release young centre-back Gareth Rodger, Wright said: “He wasn’t going to get a contract at the end of the season.
“We could have held on to him but I didn’t feel it was right to stand in his way. Forfar had used up their loans so he has signed for them.”