St Johnstone boss, Simo Valakari, is confident that Sam Curtis will turn out to be the perfect example of how a loan deal from a big English club should work.
The young full-back made an impressive debut in last weekend’s Scottish Cup victory over Motherwell, having only completed one training session with Saints following his arrival from Sheffield United.
Valakari believes Curtis, a “fantastic” find, has a successful career ahead of him.
And a half-season in Scotland should fast-track the Republic of Ireland under-21 international’s career progress, while assisting the Perth side’s Premiership survival mission.
“It was very important to us that Sam has so much experience for his age,” said Valakari. “And you saw that in the Motherwell game.
“Although he is only 19, he has played proper senior football for a long time.
“To find a young player like that, with so much adult football behind him, was fantastic.
“He is very mature for his age, but he also has that little kid enthusiasm which I love, so it’s a good combination.
“He played in Ireland at just 16, a lot of adult games against first team players who have all the experience.
“It shows.
“But although he has good experience for his age, there is plenty more still to come and we are here to help him develop.
“He’s here to learn so he can go back to Sheffield United and hopefully make that breakthrough.
“So, while he’s helping us, we are also helping him and will be working with him on parts of his game.”
Support inside McDiarmid Park
Saints’ transfer window business is gathering pace and Valakari has taken full advantage of Gus MacPherson’s experience on the recruitment side of football.
“Gus was the one who spotted Sam and brought him to us,” he said.
“It is very, very good work.
“Gus has been working so hard on our recruitment, and you can see all the experience he has from being a manager himself and from other clubs.
“He has remained calm, which is not easy in the window when so many things are happening.
“But having him there, someone who understands both sides of it, has been a really big help.
“If I ask him something, he will have the answer, but he’s not putting his opinions onto me.
“In these tough moments, we have his experience. We have to use it.
“We still have a couple of weeks left in the window and I would expect there to be a lot more movement because clubs are getting busy now.”
Playing to their strengths
Valakari used words like “stability” and “natural” to describe the look of his team in the cup victory over Motherwell, even though it remains very much a work in progress.
“We still have to tinker with the lineup but last weekend I felt it was the most natural our team has been since I came here,” he reflected. “Especially in the first half.
“Obviously we are still short of some things – like wingers for example – but the feeling I got was the players were able to play to their strengths a lot more.
“We have had to force things too much this season for many reasons, such as not having the options in certain areas of the team.
“But the three newcomers gave us something, a bit of stability and that helped the other players.
“I also felt that the bench gave us something more too – there was more scope to change things.
“We had more attacking power to bring on, which is helpful as a manager.
“When we were really broken it was difficult, but overall last weekend I felt we got a little bit closer to being a better football team.”
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