Board need radical action now to keep St Mirren alive
New St Mirren striker Rory Loy admits he has unfinished business at the club after struggling to make an impact in his first spell seven years ago.
The 28-year-old returned to the Paisley outfit yesterday on a loan deal from Dundee until the end of the season and has vowed to play his part in keeping the Saints in the Championship.
But Loy admits he was disappointed with how his first stint with Saints panned out under then manager Gus McPherson after failing to find the net in eight substitute appearances during a six-month loan deal from Rangers in 2010.
Loy said: “Having been here before and not being given an opportunity, I was keen to come back and show the club and supporters why they signed me back then. S A supporter, ex-player and former captain, it is beyond alarming to see the mess St Mirren have got themselves into. Less than four years since we won the League Cup, they are now in real danger of falling into the third tier for the first time in the club’s history. What happens next in that scenario is almost too terrifying to contemplate.
It has been one setback after another since that day at Hampden in March 2013. The club’s profile back then had never been higher.
They had their first major trophy in the cabinet since 1987 and looked fairly comfortable as an established top-division side. We had a strong squad and it was all looking good. But how quickly it has turned.
A number of poor decisions have been made in that time by a number of different people and they have all contributed to St Mirren now sitting rock bottom of the Championship.
But perhaps the most significant act was to appoint Tommy Craig as Danny Lennon’s successor back in the summer of 2014. That started the avalanche that followed and the club has never really recovered.
Tommy had been Danny’s assistant and was a terrific coach – especially of younger players – but he wasn’t cut out to be a manager. To say I was shocked “I was very young back then. I’ve played in this division for two years [at Falkirk] and did very well in it, so I’m not sure it’s a case of having anything to prove. “But I’m certainly looking to come here and do well.” Loy, who scored four goals in 17 appearances for Dundee during the first half of the campaign, insists he had no qualms about joining a team that are seven points adrift at the basement. He added: “I’m sure there will be plenty of opinions on my decision. But at the same time I still feel with the squad here we can turn it around and I want to be a part of that. “I want to score goals and I want to help keep the club up. “I know the training ground, I know the stadium, I know the pitch and I know there’s a good infrastructure.” when they appointed him would be an understatement.
It wasn’t a role that played to his strengths. He wasn’t a brilliant man-manager and some of his ideas were fairly old school, and it was apparent fairly quickly that this wasn’t going to work out. It was no surprise when he was sacked before the year was out.
Appointing him looked like a cost-cutting exercise by the old board. The club had been on the market for a while and they were desperate to sell but couldn’t find the right buyer.
By their own admission, the desire to keep running the club had left them. The flame had gone out. Tommy was already on the books and, by appointing Gary Teale and Jim Goodwin as his assistants, it looked like a cheap option.
The club needed fresh ideas but this was a very unadventurous appointment.
Tommy was gone by December and the feeling was the board would then turn to an experienced manager to get us out of trouble as we were struggling towards the bottom end of the Premiership.
Instead, they waited more than a month before giving it to Tealey and David Longwell, the head of youth, until the end of that season.
To make Gary’s job even harder, they also sold our best player, Kenny McLean, on the final day of the January window. Gary did his best and what happened wasn’t his fault as he was put in an impossible position.
By the springtime, we began to realise that we would be going down. Again cost-cutting was at the heart of it.
Ian Murray came in next, and then Alex Rae, and now it is Jack Ross in charge. With all that upheaval, it is probably not a surprise that the team has struggled for consistency, especially when every manager wants to bring in his own players. There has been no continuity for two-and-a-half years now.
The quality of the recruitment hasn’t been brilliant either, another sign of the financial downsizing at the club. If you look at the team we put out against Hearts in the cup final and then look at the calibre of some of those who arrived in the windows after that then the difference in quality has been night and day.
The old board finally sold up last summer, handing the club over to Gordon Scott and the fans.
No offence to any of those involved, but I’m not one of the people who would have backed it. People compare it to Hearts and Ann Budge but Hearts are a much bigger club and have a much wider support base.
We took 16,000 fans to the cup final and yet only 1,300 signed up to buy the club. I don’t think it’s what St Mirren need right now.
What Scott must do, however, is back his manager in this transfer window because if he doesn’t the consequences could be catastrophic.
Rory Loy has come in on loan which is a decent signing but they need several more because if they don’t strengthen significantly this month then they will pay the price for many years to come.
I can’t even begin to imagine what might happen if St Mirren are relegated again.
You wonder whether full-time football would still be sustainable and how long it might take for them to come back up again.
This is not a drill. This is as grim a time as I can remember in all my years as a fan and a player.
The club needs an entire change of mentality from top to bottom, supporters included, with everyone pulling in the same direction. That would at least be a start.
It is time for action now as time is fast running out.