SAINTS may look to one of their promising crop of youngsters to fill the number four shirt vacated by veteran Kiwi centre Willie Talau.

Although versatile old heads Lee Gilmour and Chris Flannery could switch from the pack to cover the three-quarters, new coach Mick Potter is studying video footage of the young players to work out who will get a run out in the club's first pre-season game against Widnes on December 27.

Options include Chris Dean, who gained valuable first team experience on loan with Widnes last year, and promising stand-off Gaz Wheeler.

The squad also has very promising teenagers in fleet-footed, goalkicking centre Jamie Foster and highly rated former Pilkington Recs junior Tom Armstrong.

Three pre-season friendlies will give those youngsters on the fringe of the squad the chance to impress, but Saints chairman Eamonn McManus has not ruled out recruiting a centre as the season progresses.

McManus said: “We have a number of options within the team, both with experienced players who have not necessarily specialised in the centre, and a number of youngsters who are centres or could play there.

“We have also kept a little bit of flexibility within salary cap so if anything does come up during the year and we feel it is necessary to strengthen in a particular position, we can do so.

“We were not going to pay unnecessary levels for players that we did not think were the right calibre before the season starts.

“If players are not available then we are happy to start the season as we are. We have a selection of youngsters to pull from and Mick is assessing that at this time. So it may be that we do not need to recruit anybody else as it could be that someone could develop into a long term player.”

Potter, who arrived in St Helens just over a fortnight ago, has been taking all the squad, bar those that were on World Cup duty, for pre-season training.

At last Thursday’s press conference he again conveyed his excitement at taking over the Knowsley Road reins.

He said: “I do feel privileged to be here as coach of St Helens.

“I have been champing at the bit to get here for months and now am really happy to get to work.

“Having been here for just over a couple of weeks now, I know the reason why I wanted to come. Just working with the quality of player we have here validates my reasons for coming.

“I enjoyed my time in Catalans and it was hard to leave, but the draw of St Helens was just too big a draw for me.

“I don’t think I’ll regret a moment of it.”