LIVINGSTON, finally free of their transfer embargo, will begin pre-season training tomorrow with a host of new faces.
New manager Roberto Landi will need to work quickly to integrate his new squad with players arriving from Italy, France, Scotland and the United States.
More trialists are expected but it is already clear that new owners Angelo Massone and Tomasso
Angelini have been busy using all their contacts in world football to put together a cosmopolitan squad.
The first official signing under the new regime came on Friday when French midfielder Jean-Jose Cuenca agreed a three-year deal from Angouleme.
He will be joined by trialists Claudio Castroni, an Italian youth internationalist who graduated through Lazio's youth system; Raffaele De Vita, a striker who top scored with Blackburn Rovers' reserve team while at Ewood Park, and Jonathan Di Maria, a 24-year-old who played in France with Martigues last season.
Also to be assessed by Landi will be a trio of players currently being touted by the IMG Academy in Florida – midfielder Alejandro Caiaffa, striker Gabriel Pagot, 18, who has dual French/US nationality, and French goalkeeper Stephane Veron, 22, who is a product of the AJ Auxerre club.
A spokesman for Livingston said: "We have looked far and wide to identify players who we feel could come into the club and help us achieve our ambition of returning to the SPL."
Also arriving will be former Celtic winger Anthony McParland, who has been released by Wycombe.
The 25-year-old, who can play on either wing, broke into the Celtic team under Martin O'Neill, but left in January 2006 after finding his options limited following the arrival of Shunsuke Nakamura.
He initially tried his luck with Barnsley before joining Paul Lambert's Wycombe.
CELTIC will send a team for a friendly at Almondvale on Saturday, July 19, kick-off 3.00pm. Other friendlies at Almondvale are against Romanian club FC Uniera on July 10 and Coventry City on July 29. Admission will be £12 for adults and £6 for concessions.
The full article contains 349 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.