The obvious answer is money. Obviously we can't afford any transfer fees and we can't offer massive wages. There is competition from several other clubs for the few availible front men, meaning Saints rarely get their man. When you consider that Gretna seem to want any striker with two working legs, you can see our problem.
Saints boss Gus MacPherson said after Saturday's match that we are currently waiting on our main transfer targets sorting out their situation with their current clubs, suggesting that there is no one left on a free transfer that is worth signing. Fair enough, except if we wait too long it may be too late, and who is to say that these clubs won't keep the players after all?
Rumours linking James Grady with a move to Saints have been around for about a month now yet are no further forward. In fact, Grady scored in Dundee United's friendly yesterday, indicating that maybe they want to keep him after all.
Other rumours link us with some guys from Dunfermline, but those would probably only be loan deals. MacPherson has already said he doesn't want to go down the route of signing young players on loan as it doesn't automatically mean they are better than the current youngsters. With due respect to those players, they probably will be. It's not as if we'd be unique in doing it, even Celtic have signed a youngster on loan from another club.
The striking situation needs sorted, and soon. The fact that we had Armand One and Chris Hay on trial and seriously considered signing them shows how desperate we are. Let's just hope it's a situation that can be sorted out sooner rather than later. A new signing this week, preferably a target man, would be just what the doctor ordered.