I’M YOUR MAN
Former star Valakari is keen on Fir Park post
SIMO VALAKARI has thrown his hat into the ring to be the next manager of Motherwell. A Fir Park favourite between 1996 and 2000, the former midfielder has led current club KuPS to the top of the Finnish league.
Asked about links with Motherwell ahead of his team’s Europa Conference League qualifier against Swiss side Young Boys tonight, the 49-year-old (below) tried to play down speculation by insisting there was ‘nothing concrete’ to report.
Motherwell parted company with former manager Graham Alexander after last week’s Europa Conference League defeat to League of Ireland Sligo Rovers.
Academy head Stevie Hammell is favourite to land the post after victory in his first game as interim boss last weekend against St Mirren. The club have been inundated with applications for the vacant position, which include interest from unnamed former bosses from the English Premier League.
Now, former Finnish international Valakari is in the mix after playing over 100 games for the Steelmen in the late 1990s.
An experienced manager, he had a spell coaching abroad with Tromso of Norway but it ended when he returned home two years ago to steer KuPS into Europe.
Motherwell had their fingers burned during their last dabble in the Finnish market, with a punt on manager Harri Kampman cut short after just eight months in 1998.
Asked about the potential for a move to Scotland in the pre-match press conference preceding tonight’s match, Valakari said: ‘If we were not playing this game tomorrow, if we hadn’t done this for the last two years, if this joint journey with KuPS hadn’t succeeded, my name would not be there in the Motherwell speculation.
‘It tells me that we have done KuPS things right and well. If we were seventh or eighth in the league, or even fifth, the name of Simo Valakari would not be speculated over for Motherwell.
‘The only thing that it says is that we have succeeded in KuPS. Thanks to the club, KuPS, my players and my backroom team, it has been possible to do it together. And, as I said, all this has to do with that game tomorrow.
‘We have played well and we have been able to play in these occasions. This is football.’
KuPS chief executive Jarno Heiskanen insisted that he knew nothing of his manager’s reported interest in the Motherwell job.
He said: ‘We have no information on whether he has applied for a job or not. We haven’t heard anything about his departure. Simo would definitely have told me if this was the case.
‘We have a really close and good relationship.’
Alexander left Motherwell less than 24 hours after his team’s 2-0 defeat to Sligo Rovers in Ireland last Thursday, which left visiting fans chanting for his dismissal.
It completed a 3-0 aggregate win for the Irish side after their 1-0 win at Fir Park the week before.