Livingston boss makes European football claim following Shamal George signing

Livingston boss David Martindale believes the Lions would be playing European football this term if keeper Shamal George was at the club last season.

The Lions paid the second largest transfer fee in the club’s history last week to sign the goalie from Colchester United for £87,500.

The 24-year-old is set to be thrown into the deep end by making his debut for the club in Saturday’s televised Premiership opener against Rangers with Martindale believing his new no.1 would have been worth up to nine points last season.

Livi were bumped out of the top-six after conceding a stoppage-time equaliser to Motherwell in the final game before the split.

Martindale said: “I’m not paying money for somebody to come in to then put him on the bench.

“Historically we don’t buy players, we’re a selling club and we’ve managed to find some money to bring a goalkeeper into the building who I think over the course of the season is going to be worth six to nine points, hopefully a bit more to us.

“Would that six to nine points gained last year get us into European football? Yeah, it would have. That’s the thought process behind it. Is that automatically going to happen? No.”

He added: “You look at the top goalkeepers and the data and we’re probably in the bottom half in that respect.

“You look at Craig Gordon, Allan McGregor, Joe Hart, Benji Siegrist away to Celtic, Jak Alnwick off to Cardiff, top keepers. I need to find a way to get my goalkeepers into that top half. And if you can do that you have a sellable asset on your hands.”

The former Liverpool youth product is the Lions’ sixth arrival this summer and while the gaffer believes his squad are in a better place than this time last season, he admits that doesn’t automatically mean it will