So tough to walk out on Ayr – McCall
Ian McCall says walking out on Ayr United has been the “toughest decision” of his career.
He dropped a bombshell this week as he left the manager’s job for Partick Thistle.
It leaves Ayr, who sit joint top of the Championship, hunting for a new boss. McCall told the Post: “I get why some will question it. But people cannot accuse me of being disloyal.
“This is the fourth or fifth job that’s come up for me in my time here.”
Gutted chairman Lachlan Cameron has been left to pick up the pieces and launch the search for a replacement.
He said :“I’m hugely disappointed as I thought we had something good going here.
“Obviously this makes it more difficult but the club will move on.”
Emotional Ian McCall’s last act at Ayr United was to stand in the Somerset Road End on Monday morning.
Just hours earlier, the departing boss had dropped the bombshell that he was off to Partick Thistle.
And so he headed for the terracing – where he claims almost five years of memories have delivered some of his happiest times in football.
McCall admits he’s walking out on the “Championship’s best team” to take up a relegation dogfight in Maryhill.
The move has drawn anger from fans, furious at both McCall and a perceived lack of financial backing from his Somerset board.
But the 54- year- old, who insists it was his “toughest decision” in football, claims the romantic lure of a return to Firhill is his real reason for upping sticks. He said: “I had to stand behind that goal – it’s such a special place.
“It was good just to look out and think back on some of the times we’ve shared over the last five years.
“I remember the night we beat Raith 3- 0 here and the atmosphere was electric. When Somerset was alive like that there really was no better place in Scottish football.”
McCall moulded a few special teams during his tenure, and players like Lawrence Shankland pulled on the black and white under his stewardship.
It’s been a golden era for Ayr fans who saw their team flirting with a Championship title bid last season.
Now they sit joint top of the league again, making McCall’s decision to go all the more baffling to some.
He said: “I get why people will question it. But I don’t think any fan can accuse me of being disloyal.
“This is the fourth or fifth job that has come up for me in my time here.
“It got to the stage where I thought... if I don’t take this job I never will.
“I’ve done something for me and my son, it’s been a huge decision, the toughest of my career.
“Everyone knows my association with Thistle and it’s a club close to my heart. They’re in trouble and I want to help them out of it.”
McCall, who was dragged from football’s gutter by Ayr chairman Lachlan Cameron, has long spoken of his personal debt to the club owner.
And many had expected that bond to endure to the point McCall would never walk out on Ayr.
But he said: “Lachlan gave me a chance when others wouldn’t, so I owe a huge debt of gratitude to him. It’s incredibly tough to leave. But the chairman understood how big the lure of this Thistle job was for me.”