I WON’T PARK THE GUS
Oran reveals new Saints director MacPherson will hit the road to scout for new stars for Buddies
ORAN KEARNEY welcomed new technical director Gus MacPherson on to St Mirren’s training pitch for the first time yesterday.
But he reckons it’s on the road where the former Buddies boss will be the biggest asset as he needs him to head up a reinvention of the club’s scouting network.
The addition of a guy who knows the Scottish game inside out was a welcome boost for Kearney who admits he needs local expertise while he is still learning his new environment having previously worked only in the League of Ireland.
As he revealed the club won’t be making moves to sign ex-Sheffield United and Birmingham winger David Cotterill for now, Kearney explained why he needs MacPherson to lead an expansion of their transfer network.
Kearney said: “It’s great to have Gus on board.
“I touched on this when I arrived that with me coming from Northern Ireland and having so much homework to do then I’m going to need good ears and eyes around me who know Scottish football well.
“The likes of Brian Rice, Allan McManus and now Gus will be vital from that point of view.
“They will save me hours of work in relation to what they know about teams, players and how we go up against them.
“It was Gus’s first morning on the pitch on Thursday and he fitted in seamlessly, he’s a real good guy. His role will evolve through time and probably a big part of that will be recruitment.
“I am aware that other clubs have structures out there more in relation to England and how they recruit.
“At this point in time the structures aren’t really in place for us. We have a few people who do bits and pieces of scouting but probably not the amount the other clubs do.
“In any team, in any league, recruitment is huge so there are things there we want to get our teeth into together to help the club push forward.”
For now Cotterill won’t be part of that push forward despite impressing on a trial stint when he has been training with the squad and played a closeddoors game.
Kearney said: “At this point in time we are sitting with quite a high squad number.
“We would have been keen to do something but we’re probably inundated with midfielders at the moment.
“And to be fair to him he’s probably three or four weeks away from being match fit so you’re trying to weigh up that aspect as well.”
St Mirren travel to face Hamilton tomorrow with their tails up after Kearney’s reign got off to a positive start with a battling goalless draw against Celtic last Friday.
He said: “There was a good spring and bounce about the lads this week and I would hope for that every week.
“It is important in a place of work that you come everyday into an environment that people do enjoy.
“It is important to have that good vibe and buzz about the place and that has certainly been the case this week.
“There are a lot of things that you can try to do to create that but we all know in football that the one thing that breeds confidence is results and performances.
“When the players deliver what they did on Friday it can only be good for confidence.”