'Good vibe' about St Johnstone, says Diabate

Defender Cheick Diabate says St Johnstone’s promotion to the Scottish Premiership was “a big factor” in his decision to extend his stay with the Perth club.

The 24-year-old joined Simo Valakari’s side last summer and played a key role in helping them secure their place back in the top flight at the first time of asking.

He was out of contract this summer but, after weighing up his future, he decided to stay put at McDiarmid Park.

“I think as a player, you always want to play at the highest level possible,” Diabate said.

“So a big thing for me was to make sure we were in the premiership because I really wanted to play in this league.”

“I heard a lot of good things about it. I’ve watched it on TV. I’ve watched many games. There’s big clubs in there, a lot of good players. So I wanted to be part of that.”

So far life in the Premiership is going well for Diabate. He helped St Johnstone to an opening weekend win over Kilmarnock with a goal that left him “buzzing”.

“I was very happy [to score],” he added.

“I was buzzing. It’s always good to score a goal as a centre-half. We work a lot on set-pieces so we were working through that during the week. To score a goal, it was a good feeling. But ultimately, we got the three points, so that’s the most important thing.”

“It’s always good to start off well because it makes you have a good feeling about the season. So there’s a good vibe.”

“Hopefully we can go to St Mirren and just keep that going. It’s going to be a tough game, but hopefully we can just keep going.”