FORMER St Johnstone striker Guy Melamed is in advanced talks with two clubs in Israel over a return to his homeland.
The 28-year-old moved to McDiarmid Park last summer and despite a slow start to life in Scotland he went on to play a key role for the Perth club as they landed a historic cup double.
Melamed had been linked with a move down south with clubs such as Sunderland and Ipswich Town being credited with an interest.
But Herald and Times Sport now understands that Melamed will likely return to Isreal with two clubs currently in discussions with his representatives.
The transfer talks come as St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson revealed earlier this week that the door was still open for Melamed to return to McDiarmid Park.
He said: “I would like to thank Guy for all his efforts last season. All credit to him as a man coming over during COVID and having to live in isolation and play football.
“It must have been an extremely difficult time for Guy. He could have been tempted to down tools in those early months and looked to head back home.
“But once he had settled in, some of his performances, particularly in January and February, were fantastic. He was desperate to get into the team and he scored some vital goals for us.
“We made him a very good offer to stay but his agent has said he will wait and see. It’s unfortunate we haven’t been able to come to an agreement. We have to move on but things can change quickly in football.
“Right now the offer is still there if Guy changes his mind and decides he wants to play for us next season.”
Melamed all but confirmed his Perth exit last week as he took to Instagram to pay tribute to the loyal St Johnstone supporters who never got the opportunity to see him play in the flesh.
He wrote: “It's time to say goodbye. I'm officially leaving St Johnstone and I have only good things to say about this wonderful club.
“I was happy to be an important part of the biggest year in the history of the club. Thanks to the gaffer, players and all the staff.
“Finally to the fans who might not have been in the stadium but I could feel their support.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here