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

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. Sunday 2nd August 1:00pm Kick off 2:00pm St Johnstone fixtures: Saints begin Premiership return at home to KilmarnockScottish Premiership: Every match across opening weekend live on Sky SportsNot got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream the Premiership with no contractSt 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. Image: St Johnstone won the Championship title last season "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. Every match across opening weekend live on Sky Sports! Friday July 31: Dundee Utd vs Rangers (8pm) Saturday August 1: Falkirk vs St Mirren (3pm) Saturday August 1: Aberdeen vs Hearts (5.30pm) Sunday August 2: St Johnstone vs Kilmarnock (2pm) Sunday August 2: Hibernian vs Motherwell (4.30pm) Monday August 3: Celtic vs Dundee (7.30pm) "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."