MOST football managers are delighted if they can come up with a coherent strategy for positioning their players on a pitch.
Yesterday, having signed a new two-year deal to stay at Rugby Park, Kenny Shiels preferred to concentrate upon positioning Kilmarnock in the ever-changing marketplace of Scottish football.
The Northern Irishman is as concerned with winning new fans as winning matches in the next few years and hopes to build the Rugby Park brand as "the people's club" in this corner of Ayrshire. It isn't exactly original – Everton have referred to themselves as this for years and tried unsuccessfully to trademark the nickname in 2009 – but Shiels certainly said it often enough and it is a logical way to capitalise on the club's Scottish Communities League Cup success at a time when every club faces an uncertain future.
"We can't win two league cups next season," said Shiels, whose assistant Jimmy Nicholl also agreed a new two-year term. "That is why I'm putting more emphasis on getting more people through the gates and creating a family ambience. Kilmarnock have a great history that people should be proud of. We are a west of Scotland club with no baggage; this club is free from prejudice, racism and bigotry. It has so much going for it.
"If I can try and reach 60% of the football population in the area to support their local club, it would be a fantastic achievement. If you're a good parent and want to bring your children up in a way where they understand good values and morals, they have a local industry here where they can come and have a fun time. It doesn't stink of other external influences and if those parents want to send them to Kilmarnock, it would be a very good choice, I would have thought."
If the ultimate logic of this argument is to build the club up to a point where they could challenge on a more regular basis for silverware, Shiels is coy on the subject. His main focus this summer will be keeping the players who served him so well in the season just past, and integrating the club's talented youngsters, such as Matthew Kennedy. It is probably unrealistic to expect Kilmarnock to ever win the title in the foreseeable future, but Shiels isn't about to tell his players that they can't do it.
"I don't totally agree with the suggestion only one team will win the title next season . . . I think Celtic will challenge Hearts for it," joked the 56-year-old, who succeeded Mixu Paatelainen in March last year and was subject to interest from League One side Bournemouth prior to putting pen to paper. "I will not be saying to our players that they cannot win the league next season. I've won trophies everywhere I've been and that's not being arrogant.
"A provincial, non-city club, winning a trophy is unheard of in recent times in Scotland. So we can't set challenges that are above us but, if we keep trying to be as good as we can possibly be, we can have no failures. If we can work to our principles and we don't win a trophy or finish in the top six, that may still be a successful season. We could be fourth one year and seventh the next. But we want the crowds back and we want them entertained.
"We measure success too much by its totality on the pitch. What happens to the club and the people around the club, especially after losing a family member [Liam Kelly's father Jack] at the League Cup final – is important."
While Shiels secured his future, he had a mention for his fellow cup-winning manager Paulo Sergio, who is out of contract at Hearts and the subject of speculation. "You need to know the politics there," Shiels said. "But he is a good friend. I like Sergio a lot and I think he deserves a lot of credit for what he's achieved."
The Rugby Park club hope the next Shiels to sign up for the long-term is midfielder Dean. Scorer of 15 goals last season, he is mulling over a new contract and had previously said that his father re-signing might help him stay. "He must be a spoilt brat then," said Shiels senior, family club or not. "He's big enough to make his own decisions on where he should go."
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