Perth men are on to a winner with Callum... he doesn’t lose at anything!
ROWETT BACKS HIS FORMER No 2 TO BE A BIG HIT AT SAINTS
IF Gary Rowett wanted a playing partner for relaxing pastimes away from the intense pressure of trying to win football matches, he picked the wrong assistant manager. Twice. It must say something for the coaching qualities of Callum Davidson, then, that Rowett was prepared to recruit him firstly at Stoke City and then Millwall.
However, in doing so, Rowett forfeited any hope of scoring the odd success on the golf course or the squash court with his backroom staff.
In fact, he booked himself in for the frustrating, occasionally infuriating and ultimately impossible challenge of matching a sporting all-rounder’s talent and severely competitive streak.
‘I played once or twice with Cal at golf but suddenly realised he was actually playing a completely different game to me,’ admitted Rowett.
‘I was a reasonably good sportsman as a youngster myself. At the time, I had a single-figure handicap but he was another level above that.
‘I am ashamed to say I don’t think I’ve ever beaten Cal at anything. Once or twice, I thought: “Well, he’s a bit shorter than me, so I’m sure I could take him at some sports”.
‘But you play him at pool, he’s very good. You play him at table tennis, he’s excellent. Squash, good.
He just does everything.
‘I suppose I could outrun him but that’s about it at the moment. I’d have to go to the ends of the earth to pick a sport I could beat him at.
‘Cal is a very talented sportsman. His whole family are. His daughter is a good tennis player, his wife, too.
‘I think his character is that he wants to win — in anything you take him on at.
‘It’s a very good temperament to have when it comes to those pressure moments. I think that will help him in management.’
Despite the lengthy record of being runner-up in a two-man contest, Rowett would rather the Scot had remained as his right-hand man for the Championship campaign.
Millwall drew with the pair’s former club Stoke City in last Saturday’s opener and won at Rotherham yesterday but golf ace Davidson’s season is already in full swing at St Johnstone.
The 44-year-old’s team has had a mixed start in the Premiership in his first job as frontline boss and suffered a disappointing home loss to Ross County yesterday.
At Millwall, he had been in the thick of a play-off chase in the coronavirus-delayed end to the English season when Rowett could hold his No2 back no more.
For St Johnstone, where Davidson enjoyed two playing and two assistant manager spells, came calling in June.
‘I managed to get him at Stoke and then at Millwall and I felt we had a good relationship that I hoped would last for longer,’ said Rowett.
‘But I always sort of knew deep down that he would want to be a manager at some point. I just didn’t know when — and he didn’t either.
‘When an opportunity like that comes along, you hope that he maybe doesn’t feel it’s quite the right timing.
‘But when it’s your hometown club, when you have been working away from your family for a couple of years, I couldn’t stand in the way of him wanting to take that step into management.
‘You want people who are fiercely ambitious anyway, it’s what makes them good at their job. While the timing wasn’t ideal for us, it never really is. Mixed emotions, really.
‘Disappointed for us, pleased for him. And I could tell his mind was made up.
‘Once you’ve convinced yourself it’s the right opportunity, if someone then convinced you otherwise, you might well regret it — and hold that against them down the line.’
Rowett had no wish to risk that dynamic impinging on a friendship dating back to signing for Peter Taylor’s Leicester City in the summer of 2000.
Their families holidayed together many times and they kept in touch after going their separate ways.
Rowett’s outstanding work with Burton Albion then Birmingham City earned him the reputation as one of the brightest managerial prospects in England.
Davidson, meanwhile, worked alongside Tommy Wright at McDiarmid Park. The gamechanger in Rowett’s eyes was when Davidson was picked by Gordon Strachan to join the Scotland squad as coach in the spring of 2017. ‘I didn’t speak to Cal every week but we were in touch periodically and when he went to St Johnstone as a coach, if he needed any advice on players or any information, I was there,’ explained Rowett.
‘When Gordon got him into the Scotland set-up that, for me, was a realisation that he was going to have a lot to offer.
‘I always knew what a great character Cal was but I didn’t know how good a coach he was. The fact that Scotland had head-hunted him to come into their system said a lot.’
Building on the consistency of Wright’s seven-year reign was the challenge Davidson picked up in Perth. Early signs of a style tweak, to a 5-2-3 with a high press and bombing full-backs, indicate that the new man is his own man.
‘He had worked with Tommy and he often spoke about how good Tommy was,’ said Rowett. ‘But I think, when you go back into a club, there’s little point in doing the same things as the manager before.
‘The system Cal and I had at Millwall is the type that, while you want to have a little bit more possession and try to evolve a style, is still a strong defensive structure.
‘I don’t necessarily think he will come away from that too much. When you’re working to quite a strict budget against teams with bigger budgets, then you have to find a way to be effective and efficient.
‘I suppose, ironically, the way the season has started there, initially they’ve been very solid and it has been hard to score goals on the end of those chances.
‘I think his ideal plan would be coming away a little bit from some of the things done previously but, nevertheless, maintain that ethos and hard-working ethic that St Johnstone fans want to see.
‘I could see Cal going far. I’d expect him to be able to deliver success at St Johnstone, whatever that is — top six.
‘Ultimately, his ambition I’m sure as a proud Scotsman is to have an opportunity to manage his country at some stage. His ambition and drive will certainly give him a fighting chance to do that.’
I always knew he would want to be his own man at some point