One Year On...Catching Up With JJ!

Jim Jefferies has just completed his first full year in charge ...here are some of his reflections....

About His arrival at Rugby Park...."Even one of the women who works here admitted she’d been worried when I got the job because she thought I was a miserable, bad-tempered so and so, Most people usually only see me during or just after a game but you know me, and you know I’m a totally different animal then. I like a laugh and I think I can be quite good company at other times, but between 3-5pm on a Saturday I am very serious. We all handle this job differently. I just hate losing. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, do you?"

About Bradford... "we can forget about Bradford because that was just a bad experience",

On his track Record..."Everybody has a different opinion but if it goes on your track record ... I can’t believe it was the football side of things that led to the fans being against my appointment. Maybe I just upset them somewhere down the line, or maybe they just don’t like me as a person, or the person they think I am anyway But that doesn’t bother me."

On Managing at Killie..."Kilmarnock have been terrific with me. Like every other manager I have to say that the financial situation throughout the game is frustrating, but at least the board here are honest with me. They tell me what my budget is and I can then work within that figure without any interference whatsoever. It’s fantastic. They trust me to have an eye for a player and they’re happy with the progress the team has made in the past year, and they let me get on with it so, from my point of view, it’s a great club to be at and, who knows, if Hearts do slip up and we do finish third then that would be great because I don’t think a club like Kilmarnock could do better."

This Seasons "turning point"...."Back in November we lost 3-0 to Partick and we brought the players back in on the Sunday, because we had to go to Aberdeen on the Tuesday and I decided it was time for a clear-the-air meeting. We laid out what we were looking for and what standards were acceptable and we told them that even though we had injuries, the performances they were coming up with were still not going to get us where we wanted to go. But they took it on board and we had a great win up at Aberdeen and we’ve never really looked back. "

"They are a great squad of boys to work with. We know we’ve not got the greatest players but their work ethic and the way they work and listen and pull together, they are overachieving and I don’t mean any disrespect to them or the support in saying that. "

"They’ve got more in their lockers than I first thought so I’ve been pleasantly surprised and that’s something every manager would love to be able to say."

On Remaining Goals...."If ever I thought things were getting easy in this job, I’d start to wonder what the hell was going on. You never crack it but if we can finish in the top four that would be a wonderful achievement and if we were to make Europe it would be a cracking season for us. Hearts are in pole position just now and all we can do is keep winning in case they slip up. If not we’ll finish as high as we can."

Recap of BW leaving & Jim Jefferies joining Killie - Here