A late night for Robbie Neilson saw him effectively complete the signing of an entire new Dundee United team in the January transfer window.
The signing of experienced Aberdeen defender Mark Reynolds just before midnight on Thursday night saw the manager take his deals for the month to 11.
Earlier in the day he’d fixed up Peter Pawlett, Calum Butcher and Mark Connolly and, as the clock ticked perilously close to 12, Osman Sow and Reynolds were also added to the squad.
January had already seen Aidan Nesbitt, Cammy Smith, Morgaro Gomis, Ian Harkes, Ross Laidlaw and Charlie Seaman brought in, making the total number of arrivals for the winter window 11.
As the lengths of the list suggests, American owner Mark Ogren has backed his head coach to the tune of well over £1 million and, as well as forking out on some six-figure salaries, the Minnesota millionaire has also sanctioned cash for transfer fees.
St Mirren were paid for Smith, Crawley Town for Connolly, Mansfield for Butcher and MK Dons for their attackers Pawlett and Sow.
And if the signings mean there will be plenty of new faces for Arabs to see when their team faces Morton at Tannadice today, quite a few of them are well known to Robbie.
Nesbitt, Gomis, Pawlett and Sow all played for him in his prior jobs at Hearts or MK Dons.
There were also departures from Tannadice. After Billy King and William Edjenguele left on loan earlier in the week, the final day of business saw Fraser Aird loaned to Queen of the South and Adam Barton head to Connah’s Quay Nomads.
Goalkeeper Deniz Mehmet has not had the short-term contract he signed last summer renewed, but he will remain at Tannadice to continue his rehabilitation from the knee injury he suffered in last season’s play-offs against Dunfermline.
With Morgaro Gomis suspended, 10 of the recent arrivals will be available today.
Pawlett, Sow, Connolly, Butcher and Reynolds are all in line for debuts.
Definitely out is defender Stewart Murdoch.
A knee injury means he will not be back in full training until some time next week.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.
