KANE MADE THE CALL ON PARS SWITCH
CRAIG LEVEIN has revealed he left it completely up to Chris Kane to make the call on a loan from St Johnstone to Dunfermline.
And he has kept the door open for a permanent Perth return if the longserving striker gets regular games and hits scoring form for the Pars.
Kane dropped down the pecking order at McDiarmid Park after Benji Kimpioka and Adama Sidibeh arrived.
The 29-year-old missed 16 months with a knee injury suffered back in January 2022.
And he has endured another injury-hit campaign with 15 appearances, including only five starts for Levein.
The Saints boss struck a six-month arrangement with Kane in December but he hasn’t featured since the turn of the year.
Levein said: “I had a chat with him. I told him he could stay. or he could go and play somewhere and get 15 games or whatever between now and the end of the season.
“I said: ‘That then puts you in a position, when your contract is up, for whether we want to re-sign you or there are other suitors’.
“Rather than me saying, ‘You’ve got to stay’ or ‘You’ve got to go’, I left it in his hands.
“It was good to make it his choice. So that, when he goes to Dunfermline and he plays, he’s there because he wants to be there. Rather than the disappointment of me saying he needs to leave.
“These decisions sometimes aren’t easy. There will be some supporters who really like
Kano and feel we shouldn’t have let him go.
“I thought it was fair and that’s what it came down to. He made the decision.”
In addition to Kimpioka and Sidibeh, Levein still has on-loan Charlton winger Diallang Jaiyesimi plus Stevie May and Nicky Clark to call upon.
He added: “You have to remember how long Chris was injured. He’s then had problems this season and not been able to get into any sort of rhythm.
“If I’d kept him just for the sake of keeping him then that would’ve been hugely unfair.”
Kane is eager to help Dunfermline beat the drop ahead of his debut in Saturday’s visit of Arbroath.
Pars are second bottom of the Championship following an eight-game winless run that includes heavy losses to Queen’s Park and Morton in their last two outings.
But Kane said: “We need to start winning games to get up that league.
“If I start hopefully I can help the team get that win to close the gap on the teams above us. I’m delighted to be here.
“I spoke to the manager and he said that I need to get out playing.
“The chance to join Dunfermline came up and I knew that it was a place I wanted to go. It’s a big club with a big fan base.”