The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Full-time challenge
and desire to succeed. I’d like to put that back into a full-time environment again.
“I’ve kept my pro-licence up to date. I just did that Midfield Masterclass course that the SFA put on in Edinburgh before the lockdown with the likes of Scott Brown, Paul Scholes and Darren Fletcher.
“You’ve got to evolve and I’d like to think I’ve done that. The time is right for me when that challenge does come up.”
The post-shutdown football environment, with budgets cut and squads trimmed, will place greater importance on the man-management skills that are essential tools in the world of Tuesday and Thursday night training sessions and the extravagant excuses for missing them.
“There’s no harder or better upbringing in management than parttime football,” said Weir.
“You see full-time footballers come straight out of the dressing room into full-time management – some are successful, but I don’t feel they have the same grounding. It’s about how to manage people, how to manage budgets, how to plan your training, how to deal with situations. I think you need that.
“When you’re dealing with full-time players you have more control. In parttime football you’re getting phone calls saying they can’t make training because the car has broken down or the wife is working late. You’re at the coalface the whole time and you’re doing a lot for yourself.
“For me it’s a far better grounding than coming straight out of the dressing room. Jack Ross and Jim Goodwin are good examples in recent times.
“I’ve listened to Tommy Wright give a talk on football management and I knew where he was coming from. It was one of the best I’ve heard. It was open and honest – no jargon. The game is still about managing people and getting the best out of what you’ve got.”
Weir, who was Elgin City boss for three years and ticked off all four Angus clubs, started out on his own at Montrose when he decided the time was right to leave Saints.
“I’d been caretaker twice and I felt that Owen deserved the chance to work with his own people,” he said.
“I gave up a job at a club I love to go and develop as a coach and get experience of life and take on a new career. I’ve learned a lot in the different jobs I’ve been in – both in football and in a sales environment.
“Looking back, I would be in at McDiarmid at eight in the morning, get the kit out, speak to Owen about training, go out with the young boys to set it up and then take part in training.
“If the reserves were playing that night I’d drive the minibus, maybe play in the game, drive back, put the kit to get washed so it was ready for the morning and get back home at 11 at night.
“That was for two years (first with John Connolly, then Coyle). There are very few assistant managers will do that now.”
There will be a new management team assembled in Perth in the next few weeks. Would Weir consider a Saints return?
“I moved to Perth in 1995 and I’ve never stopped supporting St Johnstone since then. Going back there to work would be something I could never turn my back on,” he said.