Csaba Laszlo has a well-earned reputation for being a football fixer.
Particularly in the eight or so years since he left Hearts, the Hungarian’s career has followed a pattern of arriving at clubs in crisis, bringing about immediate and at times dramatic improvement, then more often than not leaving quickly.
The new Dundee United manager, however, will be delighted if that changes and he enjoys a long-term future at Tannadice.
But it will only happen if he feels both he and the club remain capable of moving forward.
It won’t simply be because, for the past decade, the 53-year-old has regarded Scotland as his adopted homeland and has no plans for that to change.
Laszlo met his players for the first time on Thursday when he took them for training and his message to them is simple — the initial step on their journey together has to be promotion at the end of the season.
Once that’s done, he would like to take the Tannadice club back to former glories.
“I am normally always a human who wants to move forward and to reach more,” he told the Tele.
“Everything I do I want to be not just perfect but successful.
“And to be honest with you, sometimes I had the feeling after I had done the work and we had the success, I wanted to move forward but the people and the clubs they kept me a little bit quiet.
“In my last club I think we maybe got so many positive records together, they thought we can’t do any more.
“And if they come to me with OK, we are happy where we are, it’s not what I want.
“You want to do something which moves a little bit higher and forward all the time.
“One time, if you find a club that has the same target as you, you have to keep it.
“I am very confident of what we can do here at Dundee United so, yes, it can be that club.
“At the moment we have clear targets, we want to improve something, so yes I want to stay longer and this would be nice.”
For once it appears Laszlo is not coming into a club that’s at rock bottom and he is certainly happy United only trail the top of the Championship on goal difference.
His knowledge of Scottish football, though, tells him things could be a lot better and he is determined to get the Tannadice men back to the position where he feels they should be.
He knows that means a lot of hard graft lies ahead.
“It is good we are near the top of the Championship but we have still one step to do. What is now here is not high enough.
“To make it you have to do a lot of work, nothing comes for nothing in this life.
“At the moment everything is nice and is fantastic because I am new.
“But to keep this fantastic life you have to work focused and you have to work every day.
“A football club is not like other jobs where you go in, take the pen and, after four or eight hours, you put it down, you leave and don’t think about it.
“Here you have to think 24 hours about what you have to do and how to bring the club forward.
“I am focused and sometimes I am too fast for too many people.
“It doesn’t make them comfortable but I tell you, you don’t have to feel comfortable, you have to feel good after you have done the job that needs done.
“That is what is important.”
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