It was way too much being boss and player

Martin Canning has revealed the reason why he hung up his boots as a player earlier this season.

At the time, Canning didn’t think anybody would really notice since he hadn’t played for well over a year anyway.

When he took over from Alex Neil in January 2015, Canning had sporadic appearances in the first team but they tapered away sharply and he played his last game in February 2016.

Canning’s reason is simple – he doesn’t have enough time to combine both duties. He said: “The difference between being a player and a manager is huge.

“If I ran you through my week as a player I’d stumble in here at about 9.45am, as opposed to 8am as a manager, and I would train and leave here at maybe… what time is it now?

“They’re all long gone and it’s 2.05pm. I would be leaving here at about 1.30pm, so it’s a completely different workload.

“You’re doing four hours a day, albeit the two hours you’re doing on the pitch is high intensity, you’re working hard.

“The boys will then go to the gym, do their work and put in a good shift in that time period, but obviously they have a lot more time to themselves to go home and relax, rest and make sure they’re fully focused and ready to train the next day – in this job you don’t get that.

“When I go home after the 20s game on a Tuesday night I’ll go home at about 9.30 to 10pm, it will be straight to bed and I’ll be back in here again at 8.30am on Wednesday morning, so it’s a big difference, a completely different ball game, and that’s where I struggled.

“I couldn’t combine both jobs. For me to play, I had to be the way the players are now. I had to be selfish, I had to be focused on that two hours of working hard, getting a good rest in the afternoon and coming back in, ready to work hard the following day, building up to making sure I was going to do my job on the Saturday.

“So when you put all that workload in and expect me to go and play, I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t play to a level where I felt I could help the team, so that’s why I pulled myself out of that. It’s a completely different job.”