St. Johnstone sign Gartland

[nookiebear 0]

Graham Gartland a central defender linked to Rangers has signed for 1st division side St.Johnstone.

Claimed that Rangers were looking at him -and had apparently offered him "terms".

[Ted E Bayer 484]

lol nice first post.

[Muff 245]

Saints have this afternoon moved to strengthen their squad for the remainder of the season by signing left-sided central defender Graham Gartland from Irish club Drogheda United.

The 25 year old 6'2" defender joins Saints until the end of the season on a transfer which takes effect on 1st January and his availability to play at Dingwall on Saturday will be subject to Saints gaining international clearance for him.

Graham has chosen Saints ahead of interest from a couple of SPL sides.

Speaking of his new recruit manager Derek McInnes told the Saints Official Website “Graham is someone I have seen in action on a couple of occasions over in Ireland and I also watched him when he played for the Irish ‘B’ squad against Scotland at Rugby Park last season. He has a reputation as a good, steady professional, he’s athletic and has done very well in the Irish League in recent seasons.”

On the subject of the need to bring in a defender, the manager said “I’ve felt since the start of the season that we needed another centre half. We released Andy Lawrie, Allan McManus and Goran Stanic last summer and have not really replaced them. You only have to look at the bench for last Saturday’s game against Clyde – we had no defensive cover at all and we have been leaving that open to chance so I am delighted to have signed Graham. He’ll give us more options and additional competition.”

Gartland, who will be given his first run out in a closed door game against Rangers in Glasgow tomorrow, has signed until the end of the season but Derek hopes that if he likes the club and enjoys living in the area then he could be persuaded to extend his stay with Saints and he added that although the new recruit can play at left-back if required he is predominantly a centre half and securing a permanent left-back remains his priority.

http://www.perthstjohnstonefc.co.uk/

Thank fcuk!

[Craigy 0]

It's dreadful to think the level of players we're looking at.

[Jardy 0]

still embarassing getting linked to this lack of quality.