St Johnstone boss determined to retain Northern Ireland youth international: ‘He's our player'
League One club Peterborough United lodged an undisclosed bid for the striker last week, but the McDairmid Park rejected the offer.
'The club rejected a bid for Makenzie,' the Valakari confirmed.
'It is normal football business. He is a good player, he scores goals, and he is young.
'We knew there would be interest in him this summer.
'Nothing has changed. He's our player, he is working hard and we will see what happens.
'At this moment he's our player. We are not desperate to sell. That's how it is.
'We know how difficult it is to find strikers – it's the hardest thing in football, scoring goals.
'At the moment we have a very good situation with our forwards. We have different types of players and have options depending on what the game needs.
'It's a good sign for our club that we have players attracting interest from other teams.'
Valakari was keen to praise the young forward, who is the grandson of former Lisburn Distillery manager Paul Kirk.
He said: 'Makenzie has been very mature in the way he has handled it.
'He has been happy to leave it to his agent and his dad (Andy) so he can concentrate on his football.
'That's exactly what you need to do. If you start thinking ahead about things that might never happen, you do not help yourself because you will not be in your best shape to play football.
'Makenzie is handling it all very well. Our players aren't stupid.'
After two games, St Johnstone lead the Scottish Championship thanks to wins over Partick Thistle and Ross County.
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