Valakari tells St Johnstone to be 'solid and streetwise' on Premiership return

The newly-promoted side host Kilmarnock in their Scottish Premiership season opener on Sunday, live on Sky Sports; all six matches across the opening weekend of the season will be live on Sky Sports for the first time

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>Simo Valakari is telling his St Johnstone players to be "solid and streetwise" if they want to make an impact in the Scottish Premiership.

>The Finnish boss took charge of the Perth side in October 2025 but was unable to stop them being relegated to the Scottish Championship.

>They return to the top-flight on Sunday against Kilmarnock, live on Sky Sports, after winning promotion at the first attempt.

>St Johnstone lost just three league games during their title push, but the manager accepts they will need to adapt to enjoy success this season.

>"We know what we are, but we cannot be this naive, beautiful, nice team coming out of the Championship playing nice football," he told Sky Sports News.

>"If we are not hard to beat, if we are not solid, if we are not ruthless about ourselves, it will be difficult.

>"Yes, it's our way of playing and we want to do these things, but we need to be ready for this challenge and sometimes be streetwise."

>Valakari has been able to keep the core of his Championship-winning side for their Premiership return while adding eight new signings.

>Josh McPake has moved to Hearts after agreeing a pre-contract in January

>"It was important that we started this process already before our Championship season," the head coach added.

>"We got the players in and we made them two, three-year contracts. So we knew that we never wanted to be in that situation as we were after the Premiership season.

>"So that's why I'm very, very happy. And then, of course, these new additions have added their own personality, their qualities in our squad.

>"We have a very balanced squad. But when these real games start happening, maybe there will be injuries, there will be some injuries on some of our players, or things like that.

>"We have a foundation, we have good players, we have enough depth in our squad as well. We are as ready as you can be after pre-season to start the Premiership campaign."

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