Ross County manager Malky Mackay feels the experience of Jack Baldwin and Alex Samuel will allow them a smooth integration into the Staggies’ squad.
Defender Baldwin and forward Samuel were Mackay’s final two additions of the summer transfer window, which ended with County bringing in 12 new faces.
Former Sunderland defender Baldwin, 28, joined on a three-year deal having most recently been with Bristol Rovers, while Samuel, who is 25, joined on a two-year deal after leaving Wycombe Wanderers, with whom he played in the English Championship last season.
Mackay handed both players their first County starts in Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Celtic at Parkhead, and he believes the pair have the attributes to hit the ground running in Scotland.
Mackay said: “It was always the case there was going to have to be some last-minute transfer business done with patience.
“To have to wait for Jack Baldwin and then Alex Samuel was in one sense frustrating, but then really rewarding when business was done for both of them to join us.
“They’re both players a couple of hundred games deep in League One in England and Alex played in the play-off final last year to get his team to the Championship.
“I’ll take that all day long.
“They’re both a good age, in their mid-20s, with stacks of experience. As much as we have younger ones, we need experience as well.
“More importantly, they’re the right type of person.”
Samuel’s County debut lasted only 45 minutes before he was replaced by Harry Paton against the Hoops, however Mackay has been impressed with the way the Welshman has settled at Dingwall.
He added: “We tracked it, but didn’t know if it was going to happen because dominos have to fall at other places for that one to come to us.
“He just arrived a couple of weeks ago and he has settled in right away.
“He’s a terrific young man, with a real personality about him.
“He’s come in and joined in immediately, and looks a real robust forward with a lot of energy and wants to run hard.”
Mackay has credited Staggies secretary Fiona MacBean for her work in co-ordinating housing arrangements for his influx of new players, which he hopes will help his new-look squad to gel more quickly.
He added: “We had 12 players come up to a new part of the country, they have wives and girlfriends and families and cars to bring from other places. Sometimes they had 10 hour drives to get their cars up – so it was a lot of logistical stuff.
“That’s fine, clubs all over the country do that, but we’ve got to fit that in with training and preparing as a professional athlete to do a job on a Saturday.
“Great credit has to go to our club secretary, Fiona MacBean, who has led that charge in terms of finding housing for 12 players. It’s not the easiest part of the country to do that as I found myself, sitting in a hotel room before I moved in.
“It’s a big part of our work, a lot of football clubs at the top level have player liaison officers and you can see why.
“That’s not an easy thing to do, so she will be pleased that the transfer window has closed and I won’t be going to her saying we’ve got someone else coming in tomorrow that she has to find a bed for.”
