Source: PA
Paatelainen philosophical about transfer targets
Mixu Paatelainen believes Kilmarnock will have their done their job as a club if their most talented players depart during the January transfer window.
Goals from Craig Bryson, Liam Kelly and Jamie Hamill gave Killie a deserved 3-1 victory over Inverness on Wednesday, moving the Ayrshire side up to fourth in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League table.
Kilmarnock's good form, which has seen them lose just one of their last nine SPL fixtures, has led to the likes of leading scorer Conor Sammon being linked with a move away along with midfielder Alexei Eremenko, who is currently on loan from Ukrainian side Metalist Kharkiv.
While stressing his desire to keep hold of his better players, Paatelainen knows that if bigger clubs come in for them he will have a hard time keeping them at Kilmarnock. The Finn, however, is adamant that should that happen, he will have done his job by improving a player to a level where he can possibly go on to bigger things.
"There's been speculation about one or two of the players at Kilmarnock, so if we lose them and they decide to move on then I think the work will have been done by us in terms of making them better players," said the Killie boss.
"Obviously, I would look to keep my better players because we want to maintain the progress we are making, but that is the nature of football. Players come and players go. Should that happen then we would look to bring in more players and look to develop them as well."
