I know I’m fair game ... if it’s not me it will be someone else getting it
SAYS TOMMY CRAIG
FOR Danny Lennon, there is one aspect of his departure from St Mirren which remains an open sore. The first man to lead the Paisley club to a League Cup triumph — their first trophy of any kind in 25 years — Lennon’s reward was the loss of his job. His contract ran down and was not renewed.
Directors cited a need for ‘freshness’ at the helm. Then they caused widespread bemusement by appointing Lennon’s right-hand man Tommy Craig as his replacement.
As St Mirren enter a home game with champions Celtic on the back of one win in six league games and a dismal League Cup exit to Partick Thistle in midweek, supporters are once again questioning t hat decision. They are not the only ones.
‘The only thing I couldn’t get my head round was that my contract wasn’t getting renewed because
“People need to debate and we’re the topic”
they wanted a freshness,’ Lennon told Sky Sports yesterday.
‘But with the freshness — what the chairman has told me — Tommy was part of every single decision that we’d made together. That’s how closely we’d worked.
‘So that was one that I didn’t really understand.
‘My only gripe was at the latter stage with how the whole thing was handled — that I wasn’t able to end that last game of the season and say a proper farewell to the players or the fans and thank them for all their support.
‘But I’m still on very good terms with the directors of that football club and I’ll be forever grateful for being given that opportunity to work at that level.’
In his first managerial appointment after 40 years in the game, Craig has his own grounds for thanking the St Mirren board. Not least for their patience.
Ross County fired Derek Adams this season after an unseemly four games and Craig is already under a degree of pressure to deliver results, with his team loitering dangerously close to the foot of the table.
Accepting he is ‘fair game’ in his current plight, Craig said with a shrug: ‘ I’ ve been i nvolved in football long enough to know if it’s not me getting it then it will be someone else.
‘ It’s the nature of the game. People need debate and the people who are the topic of that debate are those of us inside the game.
‘You are fair game but that’s the business. It doesn’t really penetrate me personally.
‘Is it different as a No 2? It depends on the amount of responsibility you want to take. There’s still a lot of responsibility as a No 2 and the manager has that extra 20 per cent to deal with.
‘You can observe more as an assistant but, having done that, it prepares you for life as a manager.’
Craig won’t be the only manager under scrutiny during tomorrow’s lunchtime kick-off.
Ronny Deila earned some respite with a comfortable League Cup win over Championship leaders Hearts in midweek.
At a Paisley venue where Tony Mowbray c a me unstuck in embarrassing fashion, however, the Norwegian’s need for points are as vital as Craig’s.
‘Ronny Deila and John Collins will be fine,’ said the St Mirren boss. ‘Don’t worry about Celtic.
‘Deila has dealt with it very well so far. He knew, coming in, the expectations were high and they are probably higher still now he is here. There are new players and a new management team, there are a lot of things going on that don’t make the job easy. But they’ll be OK.’
A former Celtic assistant manager himself, Craig has a high regard for the man chosen to guide Deila through Scottish football’s assorted landmines.
Craig worked closely with Collins (right) as his right-hand man at Hibernian, then at Belgian club Charleroi. ‘I was delighted John got the opportunity to go to Celtic. Having been there in that capacity, I know it will give him the chance to flourish,’ said Craig.
‘I’ve known John since he was 16 at Hibs and he was a fine young footballer at that stage.
‘His progress in the game has been startling. He was the first Bosman when he went to Monaco and he played for some top teams. We go back a long way and still maintain a firm friendship.
‘He is a student of the game and everyone knows how he likes to play. To go back to Parkhead as a coach, he can now put into practice all of those things he wanted to do as a player.
‘Ronny has a similar philosophy — but I can already see John’s input into the team.
‘It’s important they both dovetail. It’s a brand new partnership but one I think will be very successful given time.
‘They are both football people, they will have taken those first couple of weeks to work together and, by the end of that time, they will have known enough about each other. So I don’t think it is difficult at all.’
The same can’t be said of Craig’s own situation.
Proof that it never rains but it pours — especially in Paisley — comes from a crisis of personnel.
Steven Thompson is out, while Isaac Osbourne, Adam Drury and Gary Teale will all miss the Celtic game through injury. Jason Naismith and John McGinn are back training after a virus, but Craig insists his team will make do and mend.
‘We’ve had four games in 10 days, so you are always going to get this kind of thing when you are involved in that kind of programme,’ he said. ‘We just need to get on with it and it’s a chance for others.
‘We are up against a formidable outfit in Celtic, that on its own lifts the morale.
‘ We are playing at home and, hopefully, we can give a good account of ourselves and see where that takes us.’