St Johnstone have agreed a deal with Sven Sprangler, Steven MacLean has confirmed.
And now the process begins to cut through the red tape to make the Austrian midfielder a Perth player.
“The deal is done between us,” said MacLean.
“We just need the SFA approval, then hopefully the Home Office and the permit.”
Sprangler got a run-out in a closed-doors game at Bonnyrigg on Tuesday night to top up his match fitness.
But MacLean had decided he wanted to sign the 28-year-old on day one of his McDiarmid Park trial.
“I remember Luggy (Paul Sturrock) always saying to me: ‘Ten, 15 minutes and I know’,” he said. “I’m not far off him.
“I think I can make a quick decision, I’m close to being pretty clear after the first training session.
“But it was good to get Sven some minutes in the bounce game. He played for 60 minutes and they trained today so I had 11 v 11.
“The bounce game was good – Kano got 45. The young ones did well too. There were a lot of positives.”
‘Eye doesn’t lie’ when it comes to Sven Sprangler
MacLean added: “He’s fit, in good shape and ready to go.
“I’ve seen players in the past coming in and they take two or three months to get up to speed.
“We don’t have two or three months. Your eye doesn’t lie.
“The other staff see it as well. It’s clear Sven has a bit about him – he knows the game very well.
“He’s got a good streak in him. When centre half trialists came in, I used to hate it as a player.
“I knew they’d come in and want to kick me, want to impress. I’d end up booting them back!
“But it’s good when you see guys like Sven coming in to earn a deal, play for his future and put it all in.”
More signings for St Johnstone?
Meanwhile, MacLean hopes that Sprangler won’t be his last summer recruit.
“I’d like to be busy on Friday,” he said. “We’ll see.
“If things happen, we will be ready to go.
“We’ve got a few irons in the fire – keeping in contact with people and maybe things need to happen in-house as well.
“I’ve spoken to three players and we’ll see what happens on that.
“If the club allow me to do others, it would be nice but we will see where we are financially.
“We don’t want to be too bloated, either. We’ve been through that.”
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