Cammy Bell has a tendency to look so relaxed between his posts that it was maybe a little mischievous of him to suggest he was keen to put his feet up during the winter break.
The Clydesdale Bank Premier League will bring the shutters down tomorrow to try and protect the fixture list from the vagaries of the weather, with play suspended until January 19.
The Kilmarnock goalkeeper will have enough to occupy his mind given he is in talks over a new five-year contract, while his general state of mind will be informed by whatever result his side come away with from the trip to face St Mirren this afternoon. Kilmarnock have punctured the assumption that consistency is the most elusive quality to their team having gone four matches without defeat – a run burnished by wins over Aberdeen and Hearts – and adding a fifth would allow them to remain based in the top six going into the break.
That form might suggest that the brief winter shutdown is untimely but energy needed to maintain it has also taken its toll. Manuel Pascali and Mohamadou Sissoko are both expected to miss out, while Danny Racchi, Garry Hay and William Gros have all been out of action for some time. The break brings a welcome reprieve, then, and Bell is confident his side will make the most of the opportunity to recharge before returning to pursue a European place.
"I think everyone welcomes the break," said the Kilmarnock goalkeeper. "This will give us a chance to step away from football and to recharge our batteries. Once we come back it'll spur the league on and I think the SPL has been fantastic this season. I know we've been on a good run but I'm sure we can pick up where we've left off once we get back into training.
"I won't lie, by the time you get to Christmas you'll have guys who have been playing on with niggling injuries for months. It'll give us a rest mentally as well because we'll be able to relax for five or six days. Hopefully, it'll be good for the Scottish game and, when we come back, the teams will continue playing the good football they've shown already."
It is a sentiment which resonates deeply with Kilmarnock given the club's efforts to marry attractive performances to success. It is a principle which the squad have all bought into and Bell seems content when discussing the prospect of committing his long-term future to Rugby Park.
The Scotland internationalist has attracted interest from Rangers in the past and the opening of another transfer window will likely mean his name will be mentioned in dispatches once more, but he is wary of allowing talk of his future to disrupt his concentration.
"It's happened to me before when I've been linked with moves and that did bother me but I've learned from that," said Bell, whose side have sent youngsters Gary Fisher and Ross Davidson on loan to Hamilton Academical and Airdrie United, respectively. "Now I know to ignore it and to just get on with it and enjoy my football. I just want to keep playing well for Kilmarnock for the rest of the season and to bring success to this club.
"I'm currently holding talks with Kilmarnock. They've offered me a five-year contract so we're just trying to iron a few things out. Hopefully, things will be sorted out soon."
St Mirren have already sorted out the immediate future of Conor Newton, after the 21-year-old Newcastle United midfielder completed his loan deal for the remainder of the season, and he will make his debut against Kilmarnock this afternoon. He has joined a side just three points behind their visitors in the league table, although their positions look very different. St Mirren lie low in 10th but an encouraging sequence of recent results has given them hope of climbing into the top half of the division.
"I think we could be higher," said Craig Samson, the St Mirren goalkeeper. "We started really well but went through a really bad spell when we weren't getting the rub of the green and losing games that we didn't feel we deserved to lose. Hopefully that bad spell is behind us now and we are back in the pack of the teams above us."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article