Buddies’ Goodwin is very keen to follow

Their approach has, admits the manager, been in stark contrast to events at St Mirren.

He went on: “This club has lacked stability for years. That’s the bottom line.

“Managers have come in and put something in place. Then the next one has binned it and used their system.

“I am here for the next three years, hopefully more, and I want to make the club better.

“I did that at Alloa. I said I wanted to leave it in a better position than when I arrived and I felt we did that.

“It can be overwhelming the amount of players you get put to you during the transfer window.

“When this window closes, we’re going to have a sit-down chat about recruitment, which is the most important part of any club now.

“We can’t just work window-to-window. It can’t be panic stations when a window opens.

“Motherwell are a great example of what you can do, what you can bring up from England if you’ve got eyes and ears there.

“It’s not about pummelling money in. It’s just getting people in who we trust and who have an eye for a player.

“Non-league in England is a good market for us, because it’s one we can afford.

“You can unearth a gem or two in England’s lower leagues and also over in Ireland.

“There are some fantastic young players in the Irish Premier League right now, who are more than good enough to play here.

“I’ve got eyes and ears over there, so that’s another market that we’ll hopefully dip into as well.

“It’s not about me being a clever clogs at St Mirren and reinventing the wheel.

“We are a Premiership club and this is what we should be doing.

“You look at Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Motherwell – they will all be doing this. “If they are doing it, then we need to. “The Scottish market is far too small to be working in it alone.

“If you only have eyes here, you will just churn out the same stuff.

“We need to be in England and Ireland, and we need to be taking a flight abroad now and again.

“We just need to be more proactive. We don’t want to get to December and then say: ‘Oh, we need a full-back’.

“As soon as this window closes, we will plan for January. When that window closes, we will plan for the summer.

“We will have a list of players we can maybe get on pre-contracts.

“It’s about being a professional, wellrun club.”