Upheld by Saints, Sandaza is reborn in dazzling form

He believes that players can recapture past form and even surpass it. He has to. After a decent introductory spell into Scottish football, scoring ten goals in his debut season at Dundee United, he has seen his plans crumble. The follow-up campaign was scuppered by injuries, with his hernia and then his groin depriving him of competitive action for eight months. In an attempt to get things back on track he moved down south but that too ended in misery. While Brighton may have secured promotion, Sandaza wasn’t that big a contributing factor thanks to manager Gus Poyet. Five goals was the sum total but given that they came during just 500 minutes of game time, he has nothing to be embarrassed about.

“My relationship with the gaffer was not good. The first two weeks we had an argument about a penalty I had wanted to take. It should have been nothing but he didn’t like me and I didn’t like him. Sometimes these things happen in football. I scored five goals in 500 minutes and it was only three starts and 15 from the bench. I didn’t get enough minutes. I was really disappointed because he had convinced me to go to Brighton even although they were in League One. I didn’t want to go to League One but he convinced me and he said I would be important. He lied to me. Many times. When I got there all those promises were forgotten. I didn’t expect that and I was really disappointed with him. I think he is a good manager and he was a great footballer, but honestly as a person, he’s one of the worst I have ever met in the world of football. I have never been in that kind of situation before.

“I now have my feet on ground and not so much dreaming, we must wait to see what happens. I now live in the present. I don’t think a lot about the future, just working hard, training hard and don’t think too much about your life. Things that will change my life are training hard, becoming a better player and scoring goals. I have to keep my mind prepared and not to get too upset at missed chances.”

As infuriating as last season was, the hardest season of his life was the second term at Tannadice.

Still settling into the country, and his battle with the English language still ongoing, his exile from the training field and the dressing room left him feeling isolated and pining for home. “Yes, I spent a lot of time on the phone to my family and friends. “

Coming through that has made him tougher and now, more mature and experienced, he has returned fluent not only in English but also in football sarcasm. It means he is training and playing with a smile on his face.

For all the respect that was missing in the relationship with Poyet, he has found someone he enjoys working with in St Johnstone boss Derek McInnes. “He is the opposite, for sure. If you speak with somebody and say things then keeping your word, for me, is very important, but for Gus Poyet it wasn’t. At the moment, with Derek, everything he said to me, he is doing. That is why now I am very excited every game. I want to play every game, every minute.”

The last time he enjoyed working with a manager as much, Craig Levein was his gaffer at United. Such is his liking for the now Scotland manager he would happily settle for a Scotland win in Alicante next month if it meant Scotland qualifying for the Euro Championships. Having adopted sports science and medical advice on diet, hydration and stretching to decrease the likelihood of further injuries, he says his muscles have even adapted to the cold Scottish climate. It means that he has started the campaign far more impressively than he or his manager anticipated. After six goals in the past five games, he goes into this afternoon’s SPL meeting with Hearts at McDiarmid Park intent on adding to that tally. He has delivered the goals the Perth side struggled to find during last season. It meant that they have been able to adjust their targets for 2011-12, setting them firmly on a top six finish.

When it comes to personal targets, however, he is more coy. He has given himself a number to aim for but he won’t reveal it. “I will tell you at the end of the season if I have made it. But I will score more goals than the goals at Dundee United. I got 11, I think.” Ten were in the first season but it’s a tally he is already well on his way to surpassing. In Spain, for the Valencia B team, he rattled in more, but a decent tally this term would count for more.

“I am a better player than before and I have more experience now. I am 26 now and I think the best time for a footballer is between 26 and 29 and that is why I want to keep working hard and I think that if everything goes well I will score many goals for this club. I don’t really want to look to the future though, I want to just live day to day because the first season I was at United everyone, especially me, thought I was moving to a bigger club but finally I didn’t so now I live in the day and we will see what happens.

“The last two years have been really tough but this summer I was wondering if I would get a good move and if anyone would want me because I haven’t played a lot. It was very hard for me. I needed my career to be born again. It is reborn at St Johnstone and I want to do well this season.”