Levein casts the net wide in the search for new Saints signings

Craig Levein can see the parallels between his recruitment strategy at Dundee United 20 years ago and the one he has embarked upon with St Johnstone.

The budget he had to play with at Tannadice dwarfed the kitty he’s got at McDiarmid.

However, the need to find young players with the talent and hunger to develop under him remains the same.

Seeing the likes of Adama Sidibeh and Aaron Essel take the field when the two teams meet tomorrow will bring back memories for United fans.

“At United, we got Morgaro (Gomis) from Cowdenbeath,” Levein recalled.

“And we also got Prince Buaben from George Wright, who was an agent and spotted him playing for a college team.

“I brought Prince into pre-season, and he looked good, so we signed him. I signed a few there – Mihael Kovacevic was another one.

“So we were always happy to look elsewhere for players, although there’s always a risk of it not working.

“I like looking for players who have potential, and I like giving younger players a chance.

“So it’s enjoyable looking in various different places to see if you can spot something.”

Over the past two transfer windows, Levein has signed players from Sweden (Benji Kimpioka), the English non-leagues (Sidibeh), Israel (David Keltjens), Portugal via Trinidad and Tobago (Andre Raymond) and Ghana (Essel).

“It’s time-consuming when you don’t have anyone to help you on the recruitment side,” said Levein. “Especially when you’re sitting nodding off at 11 at night watching another video.

“But I do like it and, hopefully, it’s something that will work for us.

“The reality is that the budget we have here isn’t the same as it was at Dundee United or near what it was at Hearts or Leicester.

“So it’s a completely different job in a lot of respects.

“We can’t compete even with the teams around us, to be honest.

“I went to sign a couple of centre-backs in the summer – guys in their early 30s, who have been kicking about in the Premiership for a while.

“And we couldn’t get near it at all.

“So we’re having to do something different – hence spreading the net as wide as we can.”