St Johnstone have handed a trial to a player once valued at £13million.
The Perth side sit nine points adrift at the foot of the Scottish Premiership, with over half the season gone.
And that means finding solutions to improve their squad during the January transfer window is crucial to any survival hopes.
Manager Simo Valakari has already added been reassured by the St Johnstone board that he will be backed this month.
Now it's been confirmed that Roman Eremenko is set to arrive at McDiarmid Park this week as one of two trialists.
The 37-year-old midfielder, whose brother Alexei previously made a mark at Kilmarnock, is currently a free agent.
Eremenko, who has earned over 70 caps for Finland and has experience in the UEFA Champions League, is optimistic about securing another international opportunity. Throughout his career, he represented Udinese, Dynamo Kyiv, Rubin Kazan, CSKA Moscow, Spartak Moscow, FC Rostov, among others.
Joining him for the chance of earning a permanent contract is Jake Taylor, a former Morecambe player who departed the English Football League club last summer.
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“Roman is coming over for a few days to train with us,” Valakari told reporters on Tuesday.
“It will work both ways – we can see him and he can have a look at us. That’s the best way to do it before we sit down and talk about things further.
“Roman has all the qualities that his big brother had – good vision, good technical ability and is someone who can see passes.
“But what makes him different, and I mean this in a positive way because I worked with his brother before, is he’s more about the team.
“Alexei was all about the attack. He just wanted to go forward all the time!
“Roman works harder for the team, which you have to do when you have played at the level he has.
“He’s been in the Champions League with some very big clubs, so you need to have that. Roman is not a flashy player. He does the simple things very, very well.
“He has a real football brain. It’s like a computer inside his head. It will be very interesting to see him training with us, see how his level is compared to our levels.
“I am excited about it but we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves because at the moment it’s just training.
“Jake Taylor will also be joining us for training so we can get a look at each other.
“He is available on a free transfer so it’s good for both of us.”
