"We understand the situation," he said. "I spoke to the players today and made it clear: if anybody doesn't want to stay, you can go. You can walk out the door. The positive reaction was they are all there, they all know."

St Johnstone are two points behind Dundee, who visit McDiarmid Park on Wednesday.

And the Perth side must recover quickly following a morale-sapping Scottish Cup loss to League 2 Kelty Hearts on Saturday.

Stressing that last season's historic cup double is "in the past", Davidson said: "I want to be successful. I want St Johnstone to be successful as a club. We're going through a really difficult time just now but I'm really pleased with a couple of signings I've brought in.

"We want to make positive changes and I want players that can make a difference. I don't want a negative atmosphere around the place."

Nadir Ciftci, Tony Gallagher, John Mahon and Dan Cleary have been added, Cammy MacPherson has joined on a permanent deal from St Mirren and Callum Hendry has returned from a loan at Kilmarnock.

"There's going to be one or two more. The chairman is backing me to get more players in," said Davidson. "It's about staying positive. I definitely believe that if you shrink away from things at this time, you'd be in trouble. So I'm going to be there fighting.

"I said to the players that from now on, it's about what we do. If you want to wallow in the past and think about what's gone on and feel sorry for yourself, then that's not acceptable. We're going to get criticism, that's a simple fact of football.

"For me, it's about what we do from now on to try to make sure that St Johnstone survive in the league. I want all the players to know exactly where they stand and exactly what they've got to do from now until the end of the season."