It’s all quiet at Greenhill Road
Lack of deadline day drama is a relief to Ross
St Mirren manager Jack Ross could be forgiven for putting his feet up as the clock struck midnight last night.
Used to a hectic transfer deadline day, much like Saints’ last one in January, it was all relatively quiet down Greenhill Road yesterday afternoon.
With the clock ticking down to the close of the summer window, Ross’ business was well and truly over when it comes to bringing players through the door.
A total of 12 players may have signed on the dotted line over the past three months, but it all seemed relatively tame in comparison to the flurry of 10 transfers squashed into the month of January.
With his business done early, there was never any pressure for some deadline day drama.
And Ross admits he was feeling all the better for it.
He said: “It has been a very different transfer window.
“In January, James Fowler and I had a whiteboard that was just filled with player’s names that had been put to us.
“We sat along with Euan Fotheringham, our analyst, and pored through umpteen bits of footage of different players, thinking no, maybe, or could be.
“It was a lot of work, a lot of time and a bit of good fortune as well in regards to a couple of the players we unearthed.
“But the club was in a very different place to what is now.
“This time we have been fairly quiet. You get inundated on a daily basis anyway, whether it is deadline day or before, but we signed a lot of players early even before we got into the pre-season period.
“We were quite comfortable with where we were at, which is good.”
Compare and contrast the two windows and it is easy to see the differences as the deadline approached.
Harry Davis was signed just in time at the start of the year, with just 15 minutes to spare.
Now, looking for promotion, the house appears to be in order — a fact not lost on the Saints gaffer.
He said: “We have still brought in a relatively large number of players over the summer months, but that is more indicative of the modern game than anything else.
“Being comfortable with where we were at as a squad as we got towards the end of this month has been the biggest thing.
“We have had a little bit of a disjointed pre-season because we had injuries, but I always felt that what we had tried to put together was good.
“I was chasing Liam Smith, who has just come in. He was a long-term target of mine, but I had to wait on him being fit because he had a problem with his ankle.
“Once we got to that stage I thought we were in good shape.”