Saints' latest recruit Keanu Baccus believes his time in Scotland will be "special" after waving goodbye to his hometown team.
The 24-year-old midfielder's switch was finally made official by St Mirren yesterday afternoon, confirming he'd agreed a two-year deal with the Paisley club.
Baccus made more than 100 appearances for Western Sydney Wanderers during a significant eight-year spell with the club, where he became a firm fan favourite winning numerous club awards.
St Mirren are hopeful he will link up with his new teammates during their pre-season tour in Belfast this week as he prepares for life in the Scottish Premiership.
Baccus told the Western Sydney Wanderers FC website: "It’s a little bit sad leaving my hometown, family that I can say I’ve made at this club and all the members and fans that have been great to me.
"Same as the coaches, the coaching staff and everyone, it’s been great. I’ve loved every minute.
“There’s been some good moments, some bad moments but that’s football and you’re going to get that.
“I think after the 100 games, it really hit me that this was a special moment in my life and in my career. It capped off my time well towards that back-end of the season.
“Now moving onto my next chapter, it’s going to be good and it’s going to be special.
“I’m always going to be a Wanderer, I’ll always be a Red & Black and the RBB will always be there for me.
“One day in the future, I hope I can watch the young players or maybe even my younger brother come through the ranks and I’ll be out there supporting him.
“It’s been great to play for this club and I’ve loved every single minute of it.”
Speaking exclusively to Express Sport yesterday, Saints boss Stephen Robinson revealed he was excited to finally be able to get to work with the highly-rated midfielder.
He said: “Keanu has signed, the contract has come through fine and we’re expecting that to be finalised imminently.
“We’ve got everything in place with the SFA, the hold up is at the Australian end but we’re confident it will be sorted very soon.
“He will give us a lot of energy in the middle of the park once he’s up to speed and he’s another we’re excited to add to the squad we have.
“We believe he can go on to be a full Australian international.
“He’s young, but he’ll bring a lot of good qualities and will enhance, not just our team, but the Scottish game.”
Baccus has been capped by Australia at under-20 and under-23 level, representing his country at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
