I’m afraid I was not clued up enough to join the forint legion
First let me start with an admission about the stupidity of footballers and the humble forint.
Livingston arrived in Hungary this week for a warm-weather pre-season camp and it’s taken its toll on my wallet.
I’d bought Euros from a travel agent on Wednesday so I was all prepared for our time in Budapest.
A £500 transaction and all was well until I had a eureka moment that night, Googled the local currency and discovered to my horror that it was the forint.
That nig htma r e wa s compounded by the fact we were leaving Edinburgh at the crack of dawn and I didn’t have time to address the situation. We are a few days into the trip and our base is situated in a small town in the middle of nowhere.
I ’ m rely ing on handouts and goodwill so thankfully it’s not quite bread and water for me yet.
This pre- season week is all about getting some hard work done and bui lding a bit of chemistry within the squad. All of the new signings are integrating well and there’s a lesson from my days as a Kilmarnock player which I’ve never forgotten.
We went on a trip one summer and there was a player called Christophe Cocard who’d arrived from France. What a talent, one of the most gifted players I’ve ever shared a dressing room with, but also one of the most frustrating.
He had exceptional ability but was also heart lazy.
During the pre-season slog he wouldn’t put the work in and some players pollute the pond if you make exceptions for them and pander to their wishes.
The rest of the players were infuriated with his attitude but he would get away with murder because he was such a magnificent talent.
That was a lesson I learned as a young player, nobody is above the team.
There are no exceptions and one of the reasons we have overachieved at Livingston is because of the chemistry we have in our dressing room.
Everyone pulls their weight, anyone who doesn’t isn’t around for long and you discover so much about people when you’re living in each other’s pockets.
You see the leaders, the boys who will take the initiative and those who are content to follow.
I’ve already had my eyes opened in Budapest as you see a different side to a player when you are around them all 24/7.
You also get an appreciation of what your staff are like and on that topic let me introduce you to our physio Andy MacKenzie.
This is a guy who is at the top of his game, state of the art in every sense and an absolute stickler for good timing.
We have a fine system in place for anyone who’s late for a meeting and on Friday everyone had gathered but there was no sign of Andy.
Some 20 minutes later the door burst open and there he was, the midnight hairdresser had been to work and he clearly had climbed out of bed moments earlier.
Then came the protests, he had set his alarm clock and it hadn’t gone off but nobody was buying it. Mitigating circumstances and a sense of fair play kicked in and we all marched to his room to allow him to provide some proof before handing over his forints.
We examined his alarm clock and discovered he had set his alarm clock, but not for 2.15 in the afternoon, it said in big green numbers, 02.15 in the morning.
We allowed him to pay his fine in Euros.