Shock at the sudden death of ex-hearts striker Paille, aged just 52

● Mccann pays tribute to a French cap who propelled Gorgie side into cup final

Stephane Paille, a former French footballer of the year who briefly lit up Scottish football in the late 1990s, has died after a serious illness. He was 52.

Paille played for Hearts in the 1996-97 season, helping them reach the League Cup final with a fine goal and a manof-the-match performance in the semi against Dundee at Easter Road. He also played in the final at Celtic Park where Hearts lost a thrilling match 4-3 to a Rangers side inspired by Paul Gascoigne.

His time at Tynecastle ended under a cloud when he tested positive for a banned stimulant containing amphetamine. It was the second failed drugs test of his career and he was sacked by Hearts but is fondly remembered by fans and team-mates as a player of great technical ability who sometimes struggled to reconcile off-field problems with his undoubted talent.

Neil Mccann played alongside Paille at Hearts and recalls a gifted striker who was immensely popular in the dressing room.

“He was a big lump of a boy but he could play,” Mccann said. “I wasn’t long in at Hearts from Dundee, and I remember thinking: ‘my goodness he can play’. He was in great condition physically.”

Paille was brought to Hearts by Jim Jefferies, initially on a two-month deal. He impressed sufficiently to earn a longer contract as he tried to rehabilitate his career after serving a twomonth ban in France for testing positive for cannabis while with Mulhouse.

He was part of a golden generation of French players, coming through alongside Eric Cantona, Franck Sauzee and Laurent Blanc. He played eight times for France between 1986 and 1989 and counted Sochaux, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Caen, Lyon, Porto and Servette among his former clubs

“He came in with quite a big reputation,” recalls Mccann. “You know what it’s like, some- 0 Stephane Paille, top, celebrates his semi-final goal against Dundee. Left, playing for France and, above, with Neil Mccann and Colin Cameron. times when people come in from abroad with a big reputation you sometimes have some doubts. But you could immediately see that he had everything you need. He had a real presence about him, a proper big No 9. He was a great guy about the dressing room too.

“He wasn’t just a big target man who you’d smash balls up to and they’d bounce off him. I remember quite vividly watching him – in fact it was probably against Dundee in the semi-final at Easter Road – when he would just pull the ball down, link the game and power away from someone. “He came over and he was brilliant; great in the dressing-room, great in the training ground. His physical condition was exceptional. A big strong, powerful guy, he clearly looked after himself. But he was effective on the pitch too, that’s the most important thing. It’s absolutely tragic to hear this news.” St Mirren’s Jack Ross has given his reasons for refusing to leave the Paisley club in the lurch by succeeding Paul Hartley as manager of Dundee, writes Ewing Grahame.

The Tayside club’s managing director John Nelms flew to Spain, where Ross was holidaying with his family, last month to discern whether the 41-yearold would be willing to fill the vacancy at Dens Park.

Ross, though, elected to stay where he was after helping the Buddies recover from being seven points adrift at the foot of the Championship in December. They avoided the playoffs by losing only one of their final ten fixtures. He now believes he can return them to the top tier.

Neil Mccann, who had performed a similar salvage job with Dundee as interim manager for the five post-split Premiership games, initially chose to return to his post with Sky Sports before a change of heart saw him confirmed as manager earlier this month.

“That [Dundee’s interest] was something I hadn’t envisaged happening because I was quite settled where I was,” Ross admitted. “Maybe I should take it as a compliment but I haven’t thought too much about it. Probably the best way to sum it up was that I left the country 100 per cent content to be with St Mirren and I returned home feeling the same way.”

Even so, he concedes that the lure of immediate topflight football was a temptation which took some effort to resist.

“It’s human nature,” he said. “Because of the emotions involved in football, particularly where fans are concerned, it’s too easy to think that everything is black and white but we’re human beings and there are all these external things to be taken into consideration.

“But, deep down, the biggest thing for me is that I really enjoy working for St Mirren. The facilities are great and that’s important for managers – I walk into our training ground each morning and enjoy being there.

“We stayed up but I don’t feel that I’ve done a good job there yet and I won’t feel that way until I can get them into the top division.”