HARRY Kewell has revealed that it was a case of second time lucky for Latics in their bid to land deadline-day signing Serhat Tasdemir.

The Peterborough attacker was the sole arrival at Boundary Park on the final day of the January transfer window, joining on loan until the end of the season.

The 20-year-old was linked with Oldham earlier in the campaign and Kewell confirmed to The Oldham Times that he had been a target a few months ago.

“He’s a fantastic talent,” the Latics boss said.

“His ability speaks for itself. He’s very well thought of at Peterborough and Darren Ferguson speaks very highly of him. I tried to get him in the summertime but obviously he was in their plans so we had to be patient on that one.

“The opportunity did arise in January and we took it.”

Blackburn-born Tasdemir will have plenty of competition for a spot in the Latics line-up but Kewell believes his new man will bring something different in the final third.

“He brings a good ball-carrying kind of style into my team, he can finish with his left and right foot and he’s got a good build about him,” he said.

“We’re looking forward to him, building up his match fitness first of course, being able to produce for Oldham.”

Whether he is thrown straight into action at Scunthorpe is a matter for debate.

Not only has Tasdemir made just four Papa John’s Trophy appearances for Posh this season, his last coming at the start of December, but Kewell also has to juggle the EFL’s loan rules.

The Oldham boss has seven loanees in his squad after the January additions of Tasdemir and Marcel Hilssner and can only name five in a match-day squad.

“Technically he’s fine but you can’t substitute match fitness for anything really,” Kewell said.

“He’s just a little bit down on that at the moment but we’ll work very hard to get him up to where he needs to be.”