Livingston boss insists coaching is key to club getting most out of limited budget

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Livingston boss David Martindale insists the coaching staff have to put in the hard yards to ensure the club's recruitment policy remains spot on.The Lions have continuously punched above their weight during their five-year stint in the top flight and enter tonight's home clash with Dundee United sitting pretty in fourth place.New signing Luiyi de Lucas is available for selection after the Dominican Republic centre-back had his work permit approved late last week.

The 28-year-old, previously with Finnish side FC Haka, was able to impress Martindale after having two trials at the club.He was initially rejected last season but returned and looked the part during the Lions' winter training camp in Turkey with the gaffer admitting the day-to-day work is critical to the club making the most of their limited budget.He said: "Nine times out of 10, if you’re not playing in Scotland or England, I’ll ask you to come on trial because I don’t know enough about you. “A £1000-a-week player in Denmark or Sweden is miles off what I need because agents relate it to finance.

So I need to see them in our environment, our coaching methods and then you get a better gauge. “You can take a couple of educated gambles but, generally, we have to put a lot of coaching into players.“We don’t have a budget where we can bring three or four players in on big money.

They’re on big money because they’re good players who need less coaching but the market we’re shopping in, there’s a lot of hard work going into the player on a daily basis."He added: "It was decent for Luiyi because the Finnish season had just ended, so he was still match fit.