Livingston boss David Martindale insists the coaching staff have to put in the hard yards to ensure the club's recruitment policy remains spot on.
The Lions have continuously punched above their weight during their five-year stint in the top flight and enter tonight's home clash with Dundee United sitting pretty in fourth place.
New signing Luiyi de Lucas is available for selection after the Dominican Republic centre-back had his work permit approved late last week. The 28-year-old, previously with Finnish side FC Haka, was able to impress Martindale after having two trials at the club.
He was initially rejected last season but returned and looked the part during the Lions' winter training camp in Turkey with the gaffer admitting the day-to-day work is critical to the club making the most of their limited budget.
He said: "Nine times out of 10, if you’re not playing in Scotland or England, I’ll ask you to come on trial because I don’t know enough about you.
“A £1000-a-week player in Denmark or Sweden is miles off what I need because agents relate it to finance. So I need to see them in our environment, our coaching methods and then you get a better gauge.
“You can take a couple of educated gambles but, generally, we have to put a lot of coaching into players.
“We don’t have a budget where we can bring three or four players in on big money. They’re on big money because they’re good players who need less coaching but the market we’re shopping in, there’s a lot of hard work going into the player on a daily basis."
He added: "It was decent for Luiyi because the Finnish season had just ended, so he was still match fit. If we were away early January, he’d have been off for four or five weeks and it’s not beneficial to him.
“Even with an educated gamble, you still need to put a lot of hard work in because you can’t just sacrifice that wage and take it on the chin."
While the new arrival is available for selection, Martindale confessed he's unlikely to see much game time this term with the signing being more with an eye to next season.
He commented: "He was available for last weekend but his registration didn’t come through until late on Friday. I’d already shaped up the team and wasn’t going to phone someone and tell them they’re out the squad.
“It brings competition. I don’t think it’s any secret that there’s a good chance Jack might not be here by the end of January but he definitely won’t be here come the summer.
“It gets him more game ready for next season than if I’d brought him in in the summer. He gets six months of minimum reserve team football, which has been really competitive this year, but I imagine he’s going to get minutes in the Premiership to get him more ready for the summer.”
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