JIM SPENCE: Simo Valakari is smooth operator - but St Johnstone boss' velvet glove contains iron fist

I suspect St Johnstone boss Simo Valakari carries an iron fist inside a velvet glove.

Ahead of Sunday’s game with Rangers, the Finn had a blunt message for squad members complaining about not playing instead of buckling down to win a place.

“You are with the team or you are not. If you don’t want to be here, come talk with me, come talk with Gus [MacPherson),” said Valakari.

“I know I have young players and older players who want to play, so we will find a solution.”

That solution could be taken to mean unsettled players heading for pastures new, unless their attitudes improve.

Telling Courier Sport that one agent told him his player needs to move after not playing for ‘one-and-a-half games’, the Finn said: “Mentality decides everything.”

Valakari’s engaging and open personality has re-energised McDiarmid Park, but Saints’ league position is still too fragile to allow the disruptive mentality of malcontents to derail progress made.

In football, we can objectively measure everything from duels won to kilometres run, passes completed to goals scored and umpteen other aspects of the game.

Ultimately though, who starts games has to be the manager’s call – and often those calls will be subjective.

Managers avail themselves of all available modern technology to measure the contributions of their players, but no analytical tool has yet been devised to help the manager measure and assess character, commitment and attitude.

That skill remains with the boss and Valakari seems to have a finely honed instinct for judging who is and who isn’t on the same page as him.

Those on a different one seem set to be written out of the story in Perth.