Luis Longstaff admits he was jealous of slick-passing Caley Thistle last season – now he is aiming to prove he can be just as effective having signed for the Highland club.
The 22-year-old winger signed a two-year deal with ICT last week and could make his debut in their must-win Viaplay Cup tie against Airdrieonians on Tuesday night.
Last term, the former Newcastle United and Liverpool youngster was at Cove Rangers, who lost four times against Inverness in the league as they ended their campaign with relegation back to League One.
His former manager at Cove, Jim McIntyre, only had good things to say to ICT manager Billy Dodds about Longstaff and, in the past fortnight, the move for Longstaff was advanced and the signing completed.
Inverness ‘make the game look good’
ICT’s fourth summer signing explained why joining Inverness appealed to him.
Longstaff said: “Playing against them last year, you get a grip of what type of football they want to play, and that’s a big thing for me.
“I want to be in a team that plays football, that gets the ball on the ground and makes the game look good, while getting results.
“I think we all understand that it’s not going to be pretty every single week, and we’ll have to grind out results sometimes, but we want to get the club back where they should be, and if we can do that playing attractive football, then that’s the best way to do it.
“With Inverness, I saw a lot of rotation between the front players, who were all comfortable on the ball.
“The wingers would get crosses into the box .
“The build-up was good, but in the final third everyone was direct and trying to play football the right way.
“That’s something I’ve always wanted to be a part of, and I was a bit jealous being on the other team watching because I wanted to do that and be in a team that was capable of doing that.”
Longstaff knows what Dodds wants from him
Inverness most likely need to beat Airdrie on Tuesday and Dundee on Sunday to have a chance to getting out of the group stages of the Viaplay Cup, following last week’s surprise 2-1 loss at League Two Dumbarton.
Joining a last season’s Scottish Cup runners-up, who are keen for a fresh Premiership promotion push after a sixth-place finish in May, appealed to Longstaff – who is grateful for his time working under McIntyre last term.
He said: “I had quite a few phone calls with Jim to be fair, I really liked him when he was the manager at Cove.
“He made the game simple for me and gave me the confidence to go out and do what I can do, and Billy wanted the same from me, so it felt like a pretty easy transition to come here because the manager wanted the same stuff from me.
“I feel like I’m going in with confidence from knowing what Billy wants from me.
✍️ Inverness Caledonian Thistle are delighted to announce the signing of right winger Luis Longstaff on a 2-year deal.
📷 @TMPfoto
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— Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC (@ICTFC) July 20, 2023
“I’m really looking forward to playing for Inverness.
“It’s a big club with a big fanbase, and they’ve been successful in Scotland as well.
“It’s step up for me as well. Last year with Cove we struggled a little bit as a part-time team, so it’s a big step to come to a team trying to get into the Premiership, so I’m looking forward to getting started and helping the club do that.”
Switch back to full-time football lifts Luis
Longstaff concedes part-time football at Cove was not an easy adjustment for him and he hopes training daily with his new team-mates at Inverness can benefit him.
He added: “I struggled with that last year, especially getting used to it at the start.
“It’s different from training four or five times a week where you can just work on your own game, and even going through tactics the day before a game – it was a massive difference, and it took me time to adjust to that.
“I had to work out how to get my stuff at the best it could be and play at the level I used to.
“When you’re only training for an hour-and-a-half every week, it takes more time to get to know the team as well, and that shows on the pitch because you don’t get the chance to build up the same relationship as you might normally have done.
“You get used to it in the end, but ideally you want to be in every day and focusing on football.”