Of all the contractual possibilities at St Johnstone this summer, Eetu Vertainen signing a new one was never going to be among them.
The fact that there wasn’t the slightest hint of Callum Davidson thinking about recalling Vertainen in January, when he was looking to recruit another striker, told you everything you need to know.
The 23-year-old confirming to a Finnish journalist that he doesn’t want a Perth return certainly isn’t revelatory news.
Nor is the fact that Davidson doesn’t see him as a fit for his team.
Vertainen actually has an accurate grasp of why this is the case – and why it would have been the case had Tommy Wright, Steve Lomas or Derek McInnes been in charge at McDiarmid Park.
As he succinctly put it: “I liked the ball more than I should have.”
From what I saw of Vertainen in his eight appearances for Saints, his style of play simply didn’t fit with the Scottish Premiership.
He took too many touches, didn’t have a change of pace and, not all the time but too frequently, marched to the beat of his own drum.
Scoring regularly in the Northern Irish Premier League hasn’t changed my opinion.
Anonymous at Kelty
If there’s one game above all others Vertainen should be judged on in a ‘bring him back’ context – when he had the biggest point to prove and opportunity to alter Perth perceptions – it was Kelty Hearts v Linfield in the SPFL Trust Trophy.
Watched by Saints’ staff that day, just three weeks before the January window opened, he made no impact and was substituted after 71 minutes.
The vast majority of his goals have been scored when he’s had the sort of time and space that he would never be afforded in the Scottish Premiership. Probably not in the Scottish Championship.
I’ve spoken to people who have watched Vertainen in Belfast and in closed-doors games while he was in this country.
Not one of them has suggested Saints are missing a trick.
Maybe he will improve the areas of his game that are in need of attention as the seasons progress.
Maybe he has found his level, or close to it, at Linfield.
The standard of the clubs coming in for him this summer will be informative on that front.
How he performs if he does take a step or two up, even more so.
The most interesting quote of the interview was Vertainen’s (understandable) bemusement at being identified and signed in the first place.
“Actually, I’m not quite sure.”
𝗘𝗘𝗧𝗨 𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗧𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗡 🤝 𝗦𝗖𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗬𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗛𝗔𝗠 𝗘𝗡𝗗 ⚽️
2️⃣ sensational strikes from Eetu Vertainen at The Oval this month 😎🔵#COYB #AFJ pic.twitter.com/YZZRKQSR1J
— Linfield FC (@OfficialBlues) December 28, 2022
The Stevie Grieve era, when there was clearly a stark divergence between the manager’s eye for a player and the head of recruitment’s, was a curious one indeed.
Perhaps Vertainen will end up at Forest Green Rovers where Grieve has been tasked by his chairman with bringing “a significant improvement to our recruitment”.
“Duncan, I’ve got a 17-goal striker you might be interested in. Could be just the man……”
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