I think a lot of it might have been down to his previous experience. He basically played at a very low level (Finnish 2nd division I think) and it might have been the case that he was decent in training, but the management weren't convinced he could step up onto an SPL level.
Luck have it we got him on a short term and he ripped the SPL to shreads and now we have him for two years.
Its just a lucky story, but I do agree it is worrying we couldn't even afford to pay him a decent wage, but is that just the cold hard face of Scottish football?