Chairman is usually right, so maybe it is time for me to try elsewhere
Gilmour’s career advice has McLean pondering options
ST MIRREN have ushered a League Cup-winning manager out the door and now chairman Stewart Gilmour is advising the club’s best young player to leave this summer. That could be considered a curious strategy to go with the underwhelming appointment of Tommy Craig as replacement for Danny Lennon.
However, Kenny McLean rates his personal experience of Gilmour’s advice and decisionmaking over the years to be nothing other than sound.
So if Gilmour believes that a move to England is in the best interests of the midfielder — voted SPL Player of the Month for April — then McLean will give it his full consideration.
Back from a short break in the sun, the 22-year-old is addressing his immediate future. A contract is on the table from St Mirren and other offers are set to follow, with Rangers, Ipswich, Huddersfield and Blackburn among his admirers.
Gilmour suggested that the Championship in England would be the shrewd move for McLean. Nothing, surely, to do with the guaranteed near £350,000 compensation that St Mirren would land for a cross-border switch made by a player who has come through their youth set-up.
McLean said: ‘The chairman says that a contract will be there for me but says openly that he thinks it’s time for me to move on, time for me to try other things. I owe the club a lot. If I do move on, the club gets compensation and that’s great. If I did stay, it’s also great for both parties.
‘The chairman has been great to me. I’ve spoken to him at length over the last few months about stuff as my contract was running down, about where I want to go.
‘The way he’s come across to me has been first-class and, whatever I do, I know I’ve got his best wishes. The club won’t hold grudges. If I went or stayed, they are happy to stand by my decision, whatever it may be.
‘I’ve not spoken to any other clubs, not had any other offers. Over the next few weeks, I will speak to the people I trust — my agent, my family — and we’ll take it from there.
‘I have a lot of thinking to do. I’m 22 and it’s a big decision. It’s one I need to take my time over.’
If McLean signs for boyhood heroes Rangers, then St Mirren’s recompense will be at the mercy of a tribunal and likely to be less than the package for a transfer to England.
That didn’t sound like the only concern about the interest from Ibrox. McLean spent two unhappy years as a Murray Park teenager before joining Saints.
‘I supported Rangers as a boy and that’s where I was when I was younger, but that wasn’t the best experience,’ he admitted.
‘I didn’t enjoy my whole time there. I wasn’t always playing and it didn’t end well. Whether I’d go back or not, I don’t know.’
McLean will not be short of advice on his doorstep as he weighs up the options. Newlyinstalled St Mirren captain Steven Thompson is a former Rangers striker who played Championship football down south, while new coaches Jim Goodwin and Gary Teale have many seasons of experience in the English game.
Goodwin and Teale will back up new boss Craig following Lennon’s exit but McLean stressed that the swift managerial changes will hold no sway over his decision.
More importantly, McLean will size up which club offers him the best opportunity to do what he’s consistently managed for the past three seasons under Lennon in Paisley — feature in first-team football and advance his international career.
After 126 games for Saints since an October 2010 debut, McLean still has a Scotland Under-21 fixture against Holland next week to catch the eye of clubs before making a career call.
‘Boys have gone down south and it’s not worked for them,’ he noted. ‘You speak to them and they’re not happy if they don’t play games.
‘It’s a short career but I need to be playing at this age. And if I go down for money, I could be back up in a year or two. Money is not everything.
‘So, if I go south, I want to be playing first and foremost. I’m not just going to jump at the first chance I get. I need to have a long, hard think whether I’m going to be playing, is it the right club, is it the right place?
‘By the end of the season I was particularly happy, scoring a few goals and probably hitting the best form I’ve been in for a while.
‘My time here has been great and I’m not saying it’s over yet. But I am very ambitious and I do want to play down south. I want a new challenge somewhere along the line.’