Kearney knows MacPherson will be magic for St Mirren in technical role

ST MIRREN manager Oran Kearney believes Gus MacPherson will be “worth his weight in gold” after returning to the club as technical director.

MacPherson (inset) has returned to the club he managed for six-and-a-half years from 2003 as the Saints board looks to instil longterm stability following a large turnover of managers.

Kearney, whose second game in charge comes at Hamilton tomorrow, said: “He got straight out on the training pitch this morning to get in among it.

“It’s a big role and when a club moves from the Championship to the Premiership, it’s a totally different kettle of fish in terms of what’s needed and expectations and everything that’s involved with being a Premiership club.

“So I think Gus will be worth his weight in gold from that point of view, not just from a coaching point of view and from an ears-and-eyes point of view, but also to other facets like player recruitment.

“It will be important that we put structures in places that allow us to move forward in the right way.

“To have managed at this level will be good as well, and the insight and experience it will bring will be brilliant.”

Kearney admits he is still getting accustomed to the delegation of tasks after arriving from Coleraine. “It’s a wee bit weird because you nearly did everything yourself and all of a sudden I have a guy to do the GPS and a guy to do the analysis, so it is a bit weird taking a step back from those things,” the 40-year-old said.

“But it’s a collective effort and of course I stand at the front of it, but at the same stretch it’s so important that we have other people behind the scenes taking certain roles and responsibilities to try and make sure we progress as a club.”

Kearney looks set to carry on with the squad he has until January despite bringing former Birmingham winger David Cotterill in for a trial game on Tuesday.

“We are sitting with a huge squad of about 28 and then also from a budgetary point of view it’s probably going to take him two or three weeks to get up to speed and you are trying to weigh that up in relation to the value,” Kearney said.

“At the minute it’s looking more negative than positive.”