Jack and Derek have given our game a boost
Jack Ross provided Scottish football with a muchrequired shot in the arm when he followed Derek Mcinnes by rejecting a big-money move to England earlier this month.
Although Barnsley are currently struggling to remain in the English Championship, they are still a bigger outfit than St Mirren.
Ross would have doubled his salary and more had he moved to Yorkshire from Paisley.
He would also have become Barnsley’s 10th different Scottish manager in their 131-year history.
Just before this season started, Mcinnes turned down an even bigger job, despite Sunderland offering to treble his income to around £1m.
Mcinnes would have become Sunderland’s ninth different Scottish manager in their 138-year history. So both clubs were trying to follow tradition. Two major decisions worked in St Mirren and Aberdeen’s favour, though. Both Saints and Dons allowed Ross and Mcinnes to travel south to talk to Barnsley and Sunderland officially.
This gamble, despite the fact both clubs were desperate to keep their managers, proved well worth taking.
It allowed Ross and Mcinnes to realise they were better off where they were, irrespective of the fact they’d both continue to earn less.
The grass isn’t always greener across the border as the pair discovered, along with many other Scots in the past.
To this day Tommy Docherty regrets resigning his post as Scotland manager to become Manchester United boss in 1972, even although he doubled his money.
Sir Alex Ferguson is undoubtedly the mostsuccessful Scottish manager to cross the border from Aberdeen to Manchester United.
However Fergie had already previously turned down opportunities to become manager of Arsenal, Spurs and Wolves.
“I just simply could not turn down Manchester United,” he told me, the evening he accepted the offer to go to Old Trafford.
His great friend and rival Jim Mclean also had numerous offers to leave Dundee United for England, but turned down West Ham, Chelsea and Wolves to remain at Tannadice.
These extra years Aberdeen and United squeezed out of Ferguson and Mclean saw both clubs prosper in Europe and dominate Scottish football.
Their belief in the Scottish game was more than confirmed as both Dons and United became feared throughout Europe in the 1980s.
So let’s hope Ross and Mcinnes follow the success of Ferguson and Mclean for the good of Scottish football.
The Scottish game is clearly at a crossroads. It won’t take much to tilt it either way.
Ross and Mcinnes may just have tilted it in the right direction.