Ian Murray has thanked the Airdrie board for backing him in his pursuit of Callum Smith last summer.
And the Diamonds boss reckons the striker is much-improved compared to his first spell at New Broomfield in 2019/20.
Smith is on top form right now with five goals in his last five games, including back-to-back doubles in recent wins over Alloa and Falkirk.
But it's not just his goalscoring that has impressed Murray, as he reckons with the 22-year-old as returned to the club from a season at Hamilton Accies in the Premiership last term an all-round better player.
The move almost didn't come to fruition, however, and Murray is grateful to the Airdrie hierarchy for making sure it did as they remain on course for a play-off spot and within touching distance of League One leaders Cove Rangers.
Murray said: "Callum was one of our most underrated players when he was here the first time. I know he went through a really long spell without scoring, but I never once thought about dropping him a couple of years ago because of his work rate.
"He went away to a higher level and matured as a person, matured as a footballer, and now he's making better decisions.
"It takes time to get there. People want players to come in and be perfect, do the right things immediately.
"Of course, you want that but I understand that it takes guys a bit of time to get experience so when I had the opportunity to sign him again, I jumped at it.
"I was champing at the bit for him in the summer.
"We thought the deal was dead, then it was revitalised and I have to give thanks to the board for allowing it to happen because we were probably at our limit in terms of players at that point.
"But we found a wee bit extra for Callum and it's paying off."
Smith is the club's top scorer having returned 13 goals in 33 appearances, leading strike partner Calum Gallagher by three.
The former Dunfermline star spoke earlier this week about how much he is loving life at the Diamonds and now his attention turns to keeping his scoring run going when they entertain promotion rivals Queen's Park.
Smith said: "We've got a few hard fixtures coming up so we just need to go into them confident and hopefully I can get more goals for the team.
"Every game in this league is hard. You've got to treat every game the same, even ones against teams at the bottom.
"Teams below us have taken points off us this season so we need to go into each game the same.
"Queen's Park will be a hard game but we fully believe in ourselves to go and win it."
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.
