New deal for Gary is a coup for Saints
The signings may not be coming thick and fast just yet but some of the important business is still being done.
I wrote in these column inches a few weeks ago that St Mirren may have already made their biggest signing of the summer in confirming skipper Stephen McGinn would extend his stay for another two years.
But this week’s news that Gary MacKenzie has also signed on the dotted line for one more season is every bit as good. There will, of course, be more to come but start as you mean to go on, and these deals will surely send a bolt of confidence right down the spine of the side, with Craig Samson also having agreed a new contract at the end of last week.
It can’t be overlooked just how good the big man MacKenzie can be.
Not many players from the beginning of his first season could have their head held high throughout a torrid time for the club. MacKenzie had his woes with injury but whenever he played he was at the top of his game that season and rightfully bagged a host of end-of-season awards.
A no-nonsense man mountain of a defender, MacKenzie’s style of play and brave approach to simply clearing his lines saw him take on a pivotal role in the side’s revival that season as they battled the odds to eventually beat the drop.
Flawless in the air, nothing will beat him when it comes to a high ball into the box. And you are never going to see him shirk a tackle, that is for sure.
The big man wears his heart on his sleeve. He could have easily packed it in this season as again the injury woes mounted up, but he knuckled down to eventually dislodge what was fast becoming an imperious defensive partnership between Harry Davis and Jack Baird.
It is easy to forget that MacKenzie only really came back into the first team around February, having been forced to watch on from the sidelines from basically the second week of the season.
But instead of packing it in he came back with a vengeance.
It could be argued that he is one of the best centre halves to play for the club in a generation and, if he can stay fit the full season, he will prove to yet again be an invaluable asset.
His injury record may leave a few concerned, but with just a one-year deal on the table then there is little to no risk involved in getting him tied up for the jaunts to Ibrox and Parkhead next season.
And, for those who say footballers don’t care anymore, that footballers don’t share the passion of the fans, then they should grab a word with the man himself.
In the middle of the chaos and turmoil of his first season, it would have been easy for MacKenzie, who has achieved a lot in his career, to shrug his shoulders. Instead, in a post-match interview, he singled out his teammates and told them there was no room for excuses.
With the passion of the North Bank, he blasted some of them for not pulling their weight. Stopping short of naming names, MacKenzie echoed the sentiments of each and every fan paying their way through the turnstiles to watch what, at the time, was nothing short of abysmal. He was the first to admit that it simply wasn’t good enough. Again last season he made no excuses for a couple of slack performances towards the end of the season.
He is a born winner. And it is born winners we are going to need.