Simo Valakari will make his mark on the training ground, the new St Johnstone manager has vowed.
In his first interview with Saints TV, the Finn touched on a few topics, including his early McDiarmid Park priorities.
“I can’t wait to start working now,” said Valakari who was lured to Perth from his previous job with Riga in the Latvian top flight.
“We can say nice words but the difference will be made on the training field.
“Once we are on the training ground I will start to know more about the players, they will start knowing more about me, and I will start knowing more about my staff.
“It’s our job – our players and our staff – to light the fans’ fire first.
“They need to see us give everything that we have for this club.
“Then they will be there for us when things are maybe not going well and we need them to create an atmosphere.”
Character
Saints are on a poor run of form in the Premiership but Valakari insisted that he can “see potential” in the squad he studied before speaking to the American owners.
“It’s funny how football works,” he said.
“At the start of the season there were a couple of close calls and we didn’t get results then suddenly everybody looks worse than they actually are.
“We start from day one building our own way of doing things.
“What I’ve learned from my coaching career is you look for characters.
“You don’t need to be the player who shouts the most – you can show it by doing the right things for the team.
“When we play well as a team every individual player looks better.
“I can’t do this alone, our sporting director can’t do this alone, our owner can’t do this alone, no player can do this alone. We need to do it all together.”
Reflecting on the last week, Valakari added: “It was a very interesting process.
“At a club the size of St Johnstone, when they are looking for a head coach there will be a lot of names but I got very interested in how the owners painted a picture of how we can take our club forward.
“My job at that point was to check our players and watch our games.
“Yes, yes the results aren’t even close to what we all want to have but I saw very good footballers in those matches, players with a huge potential.
“So I got very excited.”
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